COVID-19 pandemic. Less than half are still working. Air Canada cuts 1,500 jobs, suspends more international flights Leslie Dias, the director of the airlines sector for Unifor, which represents the workers, said considerable expansion at the Saint John facility in the last three or four years made it a victim of its own success.“It’s kind of a fact that they have done a tremendous amount of hiring within that period of time,” Dias began. “And so they ended up being, unfortunately, the first ones that were impacted by a layoff.”Dias said less than half of the 6,000 Unifor members employed by Air Canada at the start of the pandemic are on the job.She said the industry, as a whole, is desperate for a federal aid package.