WestJet, Canada’s second-largest airline, said it had to cancel at least 235 flights on Saturday because the maintenance workers’ union went on strike. This affected 33,000 people. The Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association said that its members went on strike on Friday night because the airline was “unwilling to negotiate with the union.”

Thursday, the federal government sent an executive order for binding arbitration, which led to the strike. That came after two weeks of rough talks with the union about a new deal.

Leaders from WestJet said at a news conference in Calgary that 150 more flights could be canceled by the end of the day if the strike wasn’t stopped. When asked what caused the problem, Alexis von Hoensbroech, CEO of the airline, said it was a “rogue union from the U.S.” trying to make gains in Canada.

From the airline’s point of view, Von Hoensbroech said that talks with the union were over once the government sent the case to formal arbitration.

WestJet Strike Called Pointless

“This makes a strike completely pointless, because the whole point of a strike is to put pressure on the other side of the bargaining table,” he said. It doesn’t make sense to go on strike if there isn’t a talking table.

Plus, the union turned down a deal that would have made the mechanics at the plane the “best paid in the country.”

During the Canada Day long weekend, there is a surprise strike that is affecting both domestic and foreign flights.

The union negotiating committee told its members about an order from the Canada Industrial Relations Board that doesn’t directly say that there can’t be any strikes or lockouts while the tribunal does its arbitration work.

The WestJet aircraft repair engineer Sean McVeigh who was picketing at Toronto Pearson International Airport Terminal 3 on Saturday said that the strike is an effort to get the airline to return to a “respectful negotiation.”

McVeigh said that the union is sorry for any trouble this has caused for travelers.

“However, the reason they (passengers) may have missed a flight or had to cancel is because WestJet is not respectfully sitting down at the table and negotiating,” he said on the picket line with about 20 other people. “We work hard and deserve some money for all the work we do,” he said.

Samantha Sahan and Samee Jan, two WestJet passengers at Pearson, said they were going to leave on Saturday with extended family for a trip to Calgary that they had been planning for six to eight months.

They got texts earlier in the day telling them their flight had been rescheduled for Monday, but Sahan said they still went to the terminal. They were trying to get more information and the strike made it hard to plan their trip, he said.

“Their inaction hurts a lot of people, including their own business and customers who probably won’t buy from them again,” Sahan said.

Jan said it was “sad” what was going on.

Canada’s WestJet has been around since 1996 and is known for having nice staff and low prices. It began small but quickly grew. Now, it flies to more than 100 places in Europe, North America, Central America, and the Caribbean.

They use new planes and put a lot of thought into making them comfortable and reliable. WestJet Rewards is an easy-to-use reward program that gives you points you can use. They have a good app that makes booking flights and checking in easy.

WestJet has great customer service. They’re friendly and willing to help, so your trip goes smoothly from beginning to end. Plus, they have lounges and seats for business visitors who want more comfort.  Overall, WestJet does a good job of adapting to market changes and maintaining its high level of service without going over budget.

Source: AP

Some shady personalities are making an unwelcome appearance in the Lego fandom, which is well-known to include children, teenagers, and adult collectors—and for all the wrong reasons.

Lego products, particularly the more expensive sets that cost $1,000 or more, are highly sought after by both lone shoplifters and larger organized retail crime rings. This is because the sets, which are displayed on store shelves, can be sold for a healthy profit through both legal and illegal channels.

Shoplifters Love Lego. The Colorful Plastic Toy Bricks Are A Gold Mine For Criminals

Miguel Zuniga is still coping with the June 18 break-in at his Bricks & Minifigs Lego resale franchise store in Lomita, Los Angeles County.

Around five in the morning on Tuesday, the Lego heist took place.

“The ADT security system called while I was sleeping. My wife then received a call. We were being robbed, so I went directly to the cameras,” Zuniga said to CNN.

Within ten minutes, he arrived at his store, but the robbers had left with an estimated $5,000 to $7,000 worth of Legos.

Retail crime specialists told CNN that Lego sets that have been stolen are easy to resale, usually difficult to track down, and, if they are in immaculate condition and unused, can fetch a price that’s not too far off the original retail price. Even well-maintained old sets might fetch 50% of their original cost.

Several states have had Lego thefts in recent months.

According to CNN affiliate KABC, authorities in California detained two individuals earlier this month in relation to a retail crime ring that reportedly stole thousands of Lego toys from multiple Southern California businesses.

According to a police statement cited in the story, more than 2,800 boxes of Lego toys, each with a retail value ranging from $20 to over $1,000, were found by LAPD detectives.

Police in Philadelphia have recorded several Lego set thefts in the last several months from stores like Barnes & Noble and Target; the stolen sets have been valued anywhere from $250 to $1,000 per. Target informed CNN that it was unable to provide any information regarding Lego thefts at its locations. An inquiry for comment was not immediately answered by Barnes & Noble.

Additionally, police in Richmond, British Columbia, just north of the border, found and confiscated more than a thousand pilfered toys in March. Lego sets and other soft toys valued at over $150,000 were among the pilfered items.

Among the most often taken goods
Lego sets are frequently in the top 10 most stolen retail products, along with branded jeans, purses, designer shoes, Olay skincare products, and Apple devices, according to experts, despite the difficulty in obtaining reliable statistics.

“Lego is different. Read Hayes, director of the Loss Prevention Research Council, which has Walmart, Target, Home Depot, and Gap as members, and a criminologist at the University of Florida, said, “The brand is always refreshing their offerings, always on trend with tie-ins to pop culture and special edition sets.”

Hayes told CNN that his company collaborates with most stores who sell Lego merchandise in addition to Legoland theme parks. “There is always a demand.”

Shoplifters Love Lego. The Colorful Plastic Toy Bricks Are A Gold Mine For Criminals

Because of this, there is a growing market for counterfeit goods, particularly on the internet, in addition to the market for stolen Lego products.

Lego violations are nothing new to Wichita, Kansas, police captain Casey Slaughter, who oversees the department’s property crimes section.

Slaughter told CNN, “We see Lego toys as one of the more frequently stolen items in our area.” “Lego theft can happen to any retailer selling the brand, but there are also a few secondhand stores that specialize in Lego that have emerged as resellers.” They are under attack.

Lego thieves find it easy money, he claimed. He claimed that it was hard to find out where they were taken from.

Wichita Police looked into 19 Lego thefts between January 8, 2024, and May 7, 2024, according to information the police agency sent CNN. The information showed that among the stolen items were sets from the Back to the Future, Indiana Jones, and Star Wars movies.

When contacted for comment, Lego referred CNN to online tools on its website to teach customers how to recognize phony Lego products and online businesses.

Since April, a number of Bricks & Minifigs locations in California have experienced thefts.

“This is most likely our fourth or fifth Lego-themed hit. Regarding the heist of Zuniga’s store, Captain Calvin Mah of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department’s major crimes section stated in an interview with CNN that “they happen quickly, 30 seconds to a minute.”

“I could see that they were aiming for particular Lego pieces when I watched the security footage. They had a clear idea of what they wanted. They were looking for the uncommon or collectible sets, the high-end and high-value ones, he claimed.

Shoplifters Love Lego. The Colorful Plastic Toy Bricks Are A Gold Mine For Criminals

When Zuniga told CNN about the robbery, she became tearful.

On the day of the break-in, Zuniga cleaned his store and then went home to take a shower.

He remarked, “I sent a bat signal to the community when I came back to come and support us in our time of need.” Consumers arrived; some even gave away their Lego sets. To stock empty shelves, he purchased Lego kits that were marked down at the neighborhood Target.

“The first customer that came in at nine in the morning was a 71-year-old who had built some of the most expensive Lego sets,” Zuniga recalled, sobbing uncontrollably. He’s a legend in our community. He arrived crying.

SOURCE – (CNN)

Leave it to a Wells Fargo food expert to definitively resolve the Chipotle burrito “weight debate.”

On TikTok, some consumers accused Chipotle of underserving food quantities. They created a habit of photographing Chipotle personnel as they customized their burrito orders with chicken, guacamole, and other toppings in order to get larger scoops.

An Analyst Ordered 75 Chipotle Burrito Bowls To Test Portion Sizes

The “Chipotle phone method” went viral on social media, and several personnel reacted, stating customers filming them was “stressful and dehumanizing.”

Chipotle’s CEO eventually addressed the matter.

“The portions have not gotten smaller,” Chipotle CEO Brian Niccol told Fortune recently. “We always want to give people big portions that get them excited about the food.” He stated that if consumers require extra rice or another topping, they can ask an employee.

So Zachary Fadem, a Wells Fargo analyst, went to Chipotle to investigate.

Fadem and his team ordered and weighed 75 burrito bowls with white rice, black beans, chicken, pico de gallo, cheese, and lettuce from eight Chipotle locations in New York City. (They brought them back to the office for lunch with other Wells Fargo employees.)

An Analyst Ordered 75 Chipotle Burrito Bowls To Test Portion Sizes

The analysts discovered that the uniformity of the portions varied significantly.

The bowls weighed nearly the same for in-store and online orders. However, some locations served bowls that were 33% heavier than others. Some burrito bowls went to extremes, with one topping out at 27 ounces in one place and only 14 ounces in another. The median weight was approximately 21.5 ounces.

According to Laurie Schalow, Chipotle’s chief corporate affairs officer, the size of a customer’s bowl may vary depending on the number of components selected or whether an ingredient is extra or light. She stated that the corporation has not adjusted its portion sizes.

Portion size uniformity is vital for restaurants because it allows them to control costs and avoid running out of products or having too much left over.

An Analyst Ordered 75 Chipotle Burrito Bowls To Test Portion Sizes

Customers expect consistency from restaurant chains, and analysts warn that if serving sizes are not consistent, the chain’s reputation may suffer. Many firms have been chastised for reducing product sizes while charging the same or more, a practice known as “shrinkflation.”

However, this does not appear to be affecting Chipotle. Despite the social media concerns, Chipotle’s sales increased 7% last quarter, beating competitors such as McDonald’s.

SOURCE – (CNN)