As the deadline for a strike by 10,000 flight attendants at Air Canada looms, the airline has started to cancel flights ahead of the Saturday morning deadline. By the end of today, Air Canada is scheduled to cancel up to 500 flights.
The flight attendants are poised to walk off the job around 1 a.m. Saturday morning. That would be followed by a company-imposed lockout. In anticipation of the walkout, Air Canada has been cancelling flights. It’s now telling travellers not to come to the airport unless they have confirmed bookings, and their flight is still operating. Passengers on those flights that are cancelled will be offered a full refund.
The dispute between Air Canada and the Canadian Union of Public Employees, which represents the flight attendants, is at an impasse. The airline has asked Canada’s jobs minister to step in and order the two sides to enter binding arbitration. But Natasha Stea, the president of a Montreal Local, said that would be a mistake. She said Air Canada is waiting for the government to swoop in and save the day.
“I think they’re just relying; they’re not coming back to the table. They’re relying on the government to come in, remove our right to strike, give the employer another type of bailout to be able to not pay our flight attendants a living wage and for all the time that they’re at work representing Air Canada,” Stea said.
The two main issues in the dispute are a wage increase and pay for the unpaid work hours. The union has formally rejected the idea of arbitration and has said it wants to continue bargaining. The airline has also said that finding a resolution through negotiations would be the best outcome.
A recent survey suggested that a majority of Canadians support an increase in pay for flight attendants to meet the rising cost of living. If there is a strike tomorrow, about 130,000 passengers a day could be affected.
