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Air Canada says it will begin cancelling flights on Thursday ahead of a potential strike that could see more than 10,000 flight attendants walk off the job this weekend.
The country’s largest airline said the gradual suspension of flights — which would lead to more cancellations on Friday, before a complete cessation of flying by Air Canada and Air Canada Rouge by the weekend — would allow for an orderly shutdown.
About 130,000 customers a day could be affected by a disruption, according to Air Canada.
The Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) gave the carrier a requisite 72-hour strike notice overnight after the two sides reached an “impasse” in negotiations on Tuesday.
Air Canada flight attendants can walk off the job as early as Saturday at 12:58 a.m. ET.
CUPE representatives say that in response to their strike action, Air Canada has issued a notice of lockout starting at 1:30 a.m. ET on Saturday. Air Canada confirmed the lockout in a press release on Wednesday morning.
“We regret the impact a disruption will have on our customers, our stakeholders and the communities we serve,” Air Canada chief executive Michael Rousseau said in a statement.
CBC News has reached out to Air Canada for more information about its gradual suspension of flights.
Air Canada Express flights operated by Jazz and PAL Airlines are expected to continue operating as normal.
The two sides have been negotiating a new collective agreement since March, going over key issues like wages, work rules and unpaid hours.
“We do hope that Air Canada will come to some form of rationale and show up at the table and truly engage us in bargaining the final pieces of this,” said Wesley Lesosky, president of the Air Canada Component of CUPE, who is holding out hope for a deal before Saturday.
In an interview on Tuesday afternoon, Christophe Hennebelle, Air Canada’s vice-president of corporate communications, said that “there’s a huge gap still between the union’s request and what we can offer.”
“We’ve offered an increase of more than 38 per cent on global compensation — and that’s been turned down by the union,” he said. “So time is running short.”
But the union said the wage increases offered did not keep up with inflation, and they were unable to bridge the gap in negotiation.
What’s next?
CBC News reported earlier on Tuesday that CUPE had declined a proposal by Air Canada to resolve the talks through binding interest arbitration, and that both the union and the airline were back to reviewing each others’ proposals. That work went on past midnight on Tuesday, but resulted in the union serving the strike notice almost an hour later.
“The employer rejected our final pass … that we gave them on some monetary issues. We wanted to thoroughly review it, but really wanted the members to still be in the forefront of that decision. So it took a lot of discussion,” said Lesosky.
Patty Hajdu, the federal minister for jobs and families, said in a social media post on X Tuesday evening that she continues to monitor the situation. “The best agreements are the ones the parties reach themselves,” she wrote.
Air Canada had said that any passengers booked to travel between Aug. 15 and Aug. 18 can change their flight if desired, provided that their ticket was purchased no later than Aug. 13. The airline was also going to allow these passengers to change their flights, for free, to another date between Aug. 21 and Sept. 12.
“If your flight is cancelled, we will do our very best to rebook you on the first available flight, exploring options with over 120 international and domestic carriers,” the airline said on its website.
“As we are in peak summer travel season, we know that space will still be very limited. If your travel is disrupted, you can always choose a refund.”
“On behalf of the flight attendants, obviously we are sorry and empathetic toward this, but we also need to bargain a collective agreement. And unfortunately, this was the next stage in the process,” said Lesosky.
Source: cbc
