Striking aircraft mechanics are seen on the picket line at Pearson International Airport, in Toronto, Saturday, June 29, 2024. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Christopher KatsarovChristopher Katsarov/The Canadian Press
Thousands of air travelers across the country had their Canada Day long weekend plans disrupted Saturday after WestJet Airlines cancelled more than 350 flights in the wake of unexpected strike action by its unionized mechanics.
WestJet said more than 30,000 passengers were affected by the flight disruptions Saturday, and an additional 250,000 travelers might be impacted if the strike continues through the long weekend.
Hundreds of WestJet mechanics walked off the job Friday evening following a strike notice issued by their union, the Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association (AMFA).
On Saturday, travelers were hovering around the WestJet booth in Terminal 3 of Toronto’s Pearson International Airport anxiously waiting to find out if their flights had been cancelled.
Villamor Torres and Mary Jane Herrera came to the airport after struggling to rebook their cancelled flight over the phone. The Toronto couple was looking forward to starting their vacation in the Cayman Islands on Saturday when they received an email at 9:40 a.m. notifying them that their flight was cancelled.
“We’re trying to figure out what to do—we’re in the middle of getting a new flight but they said if we get a new flight they won’t compensate us,” said Ms. Herrera.
At the airport, they were met with more confusion. “They say they’ll get us a new flight but when we ask which one they’re not responding,” said Mr. Torres.
“It’s chaos,” said Amy Morris, who was visiting the country for the first time from Atlanta, Ga., with her family. “We had a hiking trip planned tomorrow in Banff, we lose the entire first day at least…it’s not a great introduction to Canada.”
The family of four were headed to Calgary when they learned of the cancellation while on a connecting flight to Toronto. “We’re getting no information from WestJet at all — they said within a couple of hours we’ll get a reassignment, but we’ve heard nothing,” said Ms. Morris. “It was a last family vacation, the kids are moving out of state, and it was supposed to be our last hurrah.”
Some travelers arriving at Pearson were pleasantly surprised that their WestJet flights had not been cancelled.
“We had no problems with our flight so far,” said Dave Johnson, the President of the Bowling Association of Ontario who was headed to Winnipeg for a national championship with 40 other players. “They’ve checked our bags already… I was thinking they’d have picket lines and be blocking the doors.”
Sean McVeigh, a WestJet aircraft maintenance engineer picketing at Pearson’s Terminal 3 on Saturday, said the strike is an attempt to force the airline to return to a “respectful negotiation.”
McVeigh said the union regrets any inconvenience caused to passengers.
“However, the reason they [passengers] have possibly missed a flight or had to cancel is due to the reason that WestJet is not respectfully sitting down at the table and negotiating,” he said alongside roughly 20 others on the picket line. “We take on a lot of responsibility and we would just like to be appreciated financially,” he said.
Passengers are seen in the WestJet check-in area at Pearson International Airport, in Toronto, Saturday, June 29, 2024.Christopher Katsarov/The Canadian Press
WestJet said another 150 flights could be cancelled by the end of the day Saturday if there was no resolution to the walkout.
“We are extremely outraged at these actions and will hold AMFA 100 per cent accountable for the unnecessary stress and costs incurred as a result,” said WestJet Airlines president Diederik Pen in a statement.
The union said WestJet’s “unwillingness” to negotiate made the strike inevitable, and accused the airline of insinuating retaliatory action against union members.
The country’s second-largest airline pleaded for immediate intervention by the federal Labour Minister Seamus O’Regan and Canada Industrial Relations Board.
On Saturday, Mr. O’Regan said he was reviewing a decision made by the industrial relations board to refer a dispute between WestJet and the AMFA for binding arbitration — a process where a third party deliberates on the terms of a collective agreement.
“I will be taking additional steps to protect the interests of the employer, the union and all Canadians traveling over this national holiday weekend,” Mr. O’Regan said in a statement posted on X.
But a new statement later in the day said he respects the authority of the board, which he noted is independent from the government.
“I told them [WestJet and AMFA] they needed to work together with the Canada Industrial Relations Board to resolve their differences and get their first agreement done,” O’Regan said after the meeting on Saturday evening.
The airline’s CEO, Alexis von Hoensbroech, blamed the situation on what he said was a “rogue union from the U.S.” that was trying to make inroads in Canada.
Von Hoensbroech said as far as the airline was concerned bargaining with the union had come to an end once the minister directed the dispute to binding arbitration.
“This makes a strike totally absurd because the reason you actually do a strike is because you need to exercise pressure on the bargaining table,” he said. “If there is no bargaining table it makes no sense, there shouldn’t be a strike.”
He added the union had rejected a contract offer that would have made the airline’s mechanics the “best paid in the country.”
Whatever the outcome of the contract dispute, Gábor Lukács, a Canadian air passenger rights advocate says WestJet has a legal obligation to provide passengers with cancelled flights a reasonable and speedy alternative.
“Under the Air Passenger Protection Regulations they need to reschedule you on another airline or buy a ticket from a competitor,” he said, adding that this should be done within the first few hours after a cancelled flight. “If WestJet is not reachable for several hours they are not fulfilling their obligation.”
Passengers who can’t reach the airline or aren’t offered a clear alternative travel plan should proceed to book a flight at their own expense and send WestJet the bill, Lukacs recommended. Most importantly — ”they should document every message and exchange with the airline.”
Why do I keep seeing LinkedIn profiles with an empty banner and/or no profile picture? Are these people oblivious to the importance of a first impression, or do they just not care?
You, I, and everyone judge; hence, we live in a judgemental society. Your image, which shapes how people view you, is everything.
You can’t claim to be a serious job seeker if you’re not taking advantage of LinkedIn’s visual opportunities to optimize your profile to make a strong impression. When it comes to social media content, visuals are scrolling-stoppers. Aside from your profile picture, your LinkedIn banner is the first visual people see.
View your LinkedIn banner as a billboard strategically placed at street level, which you can use to capture the attention of passersby who may have a potential opportunity. (In a previous column, I wrote that opportunities exist all around you; the caveat is they’re attached to people.) Advertisers spend a great deal of money to have billboards with a captivating visual and compelling message, making the point that billboard advertising is a good investment for driving traffic to their offerings. Your LinkedIn banner—your billboard—is free, so why not use it to market yourself to employers?
If your LinkedIn banner is currently blank, hopefully, you’re now convinced that leaving it blank is likely costing you job search and career opportunities, and you no longer want to leave it blank. Here are instructions on how to create a LinkedIn banner using Canva, a user-friendly graphic design tool that offers various customization options.
Step 1: Create a Canva account
Canva offers both free and paid plans. Their free plan is more than adequate to design your LinkedIn banner. Go to Canva’s website and sign up using your email address or social media account.
Step 2: Choose the LinkedIn banner template
In the Canva dashboard, type in ‘LinkedIn Background Photo’ in the search bar at the top to find a LinkedIn banner template. Canva offers a variety of pre-made templates—as I write this, there are 7,203 LinkedIn banner templates (Canva Pro)—that are optimally sized for LinkedIn, which is 1584 x 396 pixels. Alternatively, you can use Canva to create your LinkedIn banner from scratch.
Step 3: Customize the template
Here’s where the fun begins; experimenting with all the templates and conveying your message to employers. Canva provides an interface that allows you to customize your banner template in multiple ways.
Edit text: Click on the text elements in the template to change them. You can modify the text, fonts, colours, and sizes to match your personal brand or professional style. Ensure that the text is concise, relevant, and legible.
Add elements: Shapes, lines, icons, illustrations, and other design elements, which Canva offer a wide variety of, can be included in your banner. When used strategically, these will make your banner more visually appealing and emphasize specific aspects of your personal or professional brand.
Upload your own images: Nothing will personalize your LinkedIn banner more than incorporating your own images, such as a picture of you in your work environment or enjoying your hobby, a logo or any other relevant images, into your banner.
Change the background: You can change your banner’s background to reflect your profession, industry and personality. Canva offers a multitude of colours, gradients, and images, allowing you to create an eye-catching, scroll-stoping background.
If you’re actively job searching, consider adding your contact information and, at the risk of adding fuel to the ongoing LinkedIn’s #OPENTOWORK green banner feature, announcing you’re looking for your next opportunity or available ‘for hire.’
Step 4: Maintain consistency
When designing your LinkedIn banner, ensure it aligns with your personal brand and harmonizes with your profile picture. Consistency in design and branding is critical to creating a strong professional image on a social media platform. It’s important to avoid having your profile picture’s colour conflicting with those in your banner and vice versa.
Step 5: Review and adjust
Before finalizing your LinkedIn banner, take a moment to review your design. Check for any typos, ensure the banner is eye-catching, and convey the message you want to send to your LinkedIn network and hiring managers. Your banner should show your intention and indicate that you’ve taken a thoughtful and strategic approach to your profile.
Step 6: Download your new LinkedIn banner
Once you’re satisfied with your banner, click the download button in the upper-right corner of Canva’s interface. You’ll be prompted to choose the file format; select PNG for the best image quality. Once downloaded, your banner can be uploaded to your LinkedIn profile.
Similar to how advertisers run campaigns for a period of time, updating your LinkedIn banner every quarter is an effective way to get noticed. Aside from updating your banner to reflect different aspects of your abilities, you may also want to consider updating your banner image to reflect a relevant seasonal or holiday theme—autumn, Thanksgiving, Christmas or whatever holidays you celebrate. A visually compelling banner isn’t just an accessory; it’s a powerful tool in your job search arsenal, especially since, more than ever, image is everything.
Nick Kossovan, a well-seasoned veteran of the corporate landscape, offers “unsweetened” job search advice. You can send Nick your questions to artoffindingwork@gmail.com.
TORONTO – TD Bank Group has agreed to pay more than US$28 million after an investigation into manipulation of the U.S. Treasuries market by one of its traders.
The deferred prosecution agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice has TD agreeing that a former employee created a false appearance of supply or demand in the market by placing bids or offers, only to cancel them before completion.
The agreement says hundreds of so-called spoof orders were placed, amounting to tens of billions of dollars of false supply and demand, in an effort to artificially increase the market prices of those products.
The resolution comes as TD is also soon expected to settle a sweeping investigation into shortcomings of its anti-money laundering program that the bank expects will cost it more than US$3 billion.
The agreement on the spoofing case has TD paying about US$12.6 million in civil penalties. It also faces US$9.4 million in criminal penalties, which court documents say is the statutory maximum, plus US$4.7 million in victim compensation and US$1.4 million in forfeiture.
TD says it takes regulatory and employee conduct violations very seriously, and that it reported the employee and fired him and has since enhanced its monitoring and compliance capabilities.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 30, 2024.
ST. JOHN’S, N.L. – Suncor Energy has been fined $90,000 after pleading guilty to two charges stemming from a worker injury in 2019 aboard its production vessel in an oilfield off the coast of Newfoundland.
In a news release Thursday, the province’s offshore oil regular said the company must also give $20,000 to the College of the North Atlantic’s health and safety management program.
The Canada-Newfoundland and Labrador Offshore Petroleum Board says Calgary-based Suncor pleaded guilty on Sept. 5 for failing to ensure the safety of its employees and failing to ensure its employees wore a safety harness attached to a lifeline while inside a confined space.
The board says a worker fell 7.6 metres from a safety ladder while testing for hydrogen sulfide in a ballast tank on the floating production and storage vessel in the Terra Nova offshore oilfield.
An agreed statement of facts says two emergency response workers then went into the tank to tend to the fallen man, and they were not wearing gas masks.
Suncor Energy is the majority owner of the Terra Nova oilfield, and it reported net earnings of $1.57 billion in the second quarter of this year.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 17, 2024.
