Many fliers at the Winnipeg Richardson International Airport are in limbo as WestJet catches up with flight cancellations after thousands of flight attendants went on strike Sunday.
“After 10 hours, we got food vouchers, said Susan Herpel, who, along with her disabled 85-year-old mom, had no way home from Hamburg, Germany. “We stayed for one night in a hotel. My mom was really pale and felt really stressed out,” said Herpel.
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In the airport, people could be seen constantly checking their phones to see if their flights home were interrupted.
“I don’t know what I’m doing right now,” said WestJet customer Alphonse Madogo. “I don’t know if I’m going home or not, and I’m working tonight.”
A tentative deal between WestJet and the Canadian Union of Public Employees was reached early Monday morning, but WestJet may experience long-term repercussions, said John Gradek, a faculty lecturer on aviation management at McGill University.
“This is a customer service business,” said Gradek. “If you peeve off the customer, guess what? The customer isn’t going to come back. You peeve them off one too many times, you’ve lost the customer for life, so to me they’re walking on eggshells.”
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You all knew the strike was coming. Yet we choose to constantly find ways to complain. It doesn’t seem to matter what the topic is. Strike, Tarrifs, Seniors, Homeless, Afforadable housing, Crime in no paticular order… The list goes on. Unfortunately it all seems to start with the head of our country, who doesn’t seem to be helping us and then there is the leader of our province and so on. I’m angry, mad and fed up with the way our country, province and the rest of the world.