Canadian airline cabin crews are demanding adequate personal protection equipment for the remaining flights they are working to help them prevent being infected with Coronavirus. Airlines are providing gloves, masks and sanitizing solution and wipes but some say the masks don’t fit and it’s time they started wearing full-length gowns. “We need the equipment; we need it yesterday,” Wesley Lesosky, president of the Air Canada component of CUPE told the CBC.”We don’t have properly fitted N95 masks, we don’t have properly fitted gloves and we don’t have things such as disposable long-sleeve isolation gowns that should be made available to our crews.” Airlines told the CBC they’re reviewing options in the rapidly changing environment, which included a federal decree that banned anyone showing symptoms from boarding a domestic flight starting Saturday.
Meanwhile, at least four Air Transat flight attendants and seven WestJet employees, have tested positive for the virus. Air Canada hasn’t made public the number of employees that have been affected but there have been reports that at least one Air Canada worker was hospitalized. In light of the close quarters in which they work and the sheer numbers of people they meet, Lesosky said it’s time for the federal government to step in to mandate better protection for flight attendants. “It has to be government intervention to say enough is enough. We need to ensure these people are properly protected. The airlines are trying their best, but obviously it’s not good enough,” Lesosky told the CBC.