Laval, October 29, 2020 \u2013 Avis Budget Group has announced that it is drastically reducing its activities and laying off the majority of its workers in Quebec. The company is invoking a case of \u201cforce majeure\u201d to justify its decision.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Until last January, Teamsters Local Union 931 represented 200 workers in two of the company\u2019s eight branches across the province. From now on, only 15 workers will keep their jobs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhy is Avis Budget Group eliminating nearly 90% of its positions, while Hertz, a competitor that has filed for creditor protection, still employs nearly one worker out of two?\u201d asked the president of Teamsters Local Union 931, Richard Lamoureux. \u201cWe also learned that managers at Avis Budget Group are doing the work of union members.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
National, which also operates in vehicle rentals, kept 37 of its 82 unionized positions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Before the pandemic, many Teamster members were employed by the three major competitors in this sector.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe dramatic drop in tourism and business meetings explains the difficult situation in which the three companies find themselves,\u201d explained Teamsters Canada president Fran\u00e7ois Laporte. \u201cHowever, Avis Budget owes its workers \u2013 and the union \u2013 an explanation, since National and Hertz managed to keep more jobs, while Avis Budget is almost totally eliminating them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Teamsters Local Union 931 is following the situation very closely and is currently evaluating legal options to force the Avis Budget Group to stop using managers to do the work of unionized employees. In addition, the Teamsters have grievances awaiting arbitration, but the employer does not appear to be willing to cooperate in the handling of these.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Teamsters represent all the car-rental companies at Pierre Elliot Trudeau Airport, as well as some in downtown Montreal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The workers of Avis Budget Group joined the Teamsters in 1971.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Teamsters represent close to 125,000 workers across Canada. The International Brotherhood of Teamsters, with which Teamsters Canada is affiliated, has 1.4 million members in North America.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n -30-<\/p>\n\n\n\n Media requests: Avis Budget Group has announced that it is drastically reducing its activities and laying off the majority of its workers in Quebec. The company is invoking a case of \u201cforce majeure\u201d to justify its decision.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":592,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-594","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/teamsters931.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/594"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/teamsters931.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/teamsters931.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teamsters931.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teamsters931.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=594"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/teamsters931.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/594\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":595,"href":"https:\/\/teamsters931.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/594\/revisions\/595"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teamsters931.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/592"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/teamsters931.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=594"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teamsters931.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=594"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teamsters931.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=594"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
<\/strong>St\u00e9phane Lacroix
Director of Communications and Public Affairs
Teamsters Canada
Cell: 514-609-5101
<\/a>slacroix@teamsters.ca<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"