TO ALL IAMAW MEMBERS
&
FORMER AVEOS MEMBERS
CLASS ACTION LAWSUIT
Dear Brothers and Sisters:
The IAMAW is pleased to see that a class action lawsuit on behalf of former Aveos employees has been authorized to proceed by a recent decision of Québec’s Superior Court.
The Members of the Class are all ex-employees – Union and non-Union – of Air Canada’s overhaul and maintenance centres in Montréal, Mississauga and Winnipeg who were negatively impacted by Aveos’ closure, their spouses, heirs and/or beneficiaries.
As many of you are aware, the Union brought an action under the Air Canada Public Participation Act at the time that our Members went to Aveos. That application was not successful at the time, in part because the heavy maintenance work was still being performed in the same locations. The Union was then active in initiating and supporting the Québec and Manitoba governments in the ACPPA challenges that they filed after Aveos went bankrupt and the work went elsewhere. The Québec Court of Appeal found that the ACPPA had been breached, but the federal government then changed the law to take those provisions out of the ACPPA. At the same time, in the course of the Aveos bankruptcy, the IAMAW pursued legal actions that obtained roughly $59 million of separation and other payments from Air Canada to our former Aveos Members, as well as payments from Aveos and from the government`s Wage Earner Protection Program. The IAMAW also funded and filed a complaint asking the Ministry to proceed against the directors of Aveos and provided ongoing information to support the claims in that process.
The IAMAW has no direct involvement in the class action litigation, but has supported this proceeding by providing documents to the class action lawyers and wishes the lawsuit every success.
In Solidarity,
Fred Hospes, President & Directing General Chairperson
Transportation District 140, IAMAW
