Air Canada, union deadlocked despite government plea for deal to avert Saturday strike
Canada's largest carrier has said it expects to cancel 500 flights by the end of the day, ahead of the planned Saturday strike, leaving some 100,000 passengers scrambling for alternatives.
Flightradar data showed Air Canada had cancelled 30 flights as of 5:30 AM EDT on Friday (0930 GMT).
The carrier's 10,000 flight attendants are gearing up to strike just before 1 a.m. EDT on Saturday over stalled contract talks on union demands for higher wages and compensation for unpaid work.
A strike would hit Canada's tourism sector during the height of the summer travel season and test the ruling Liberal government under Prime Minister Mark Carney, which has been asked by the carrier to intervene and impose arbitration.
Air Canada and its low-cost affiliate Air Canada Rouge normally carry about 130,000 customers a day. Air Canada is also the non-U.S. carrier with the largest number of flights to the U.S., despite recent cutbacks in travel there from Canada due to trade tensions.
Air Canada, which has also given notice that it will lock out its flight attendants, has ceased negotiating, said the Canadian Union of Public Employees, which represents the cabin crew. Canadian Jobs Minister Patty Hajdu has repeatedly urged both parties to negotiate.
Air Canada's Chief Human Resources Officer Arielle Meloul-Wechsler said on Thursday the carrier was "available to bargain at any time on the condition that the negotiation has substance."
On Thursday night, Air Canada and the union clashed over an agreement to avoid stranding thousands of passengers abroad when the strike is expected to begin on Saturday. The deal would have delayed the walkout for cabin crew who were away from their home base, until they returned with their passengers on Saturday.
Air Canada said on X that an additional 25,000 passengers would be stranded after the union rejected that deal, adding that double the usual number of flight attendants did not report for work on Thursday night.
But in a bulletin to members, the union said it supports the deal, which failed because Air Canada said it would not honor its members' collective agreements when they fly back on Saturday with their passengers. The flight attendants' contract ceases to apply when the strike begins on Saturday, the union said.
The dispute hinges on the way airlines compensate flight attendants. Most have traditionally paid them only when planes are in motion.
But in their latest contract negotiations, flight attendants in North America have sought compensation for hours worked, including for tasks such as boarding passengers and waiting around the airport before and between flights.
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Reuters
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Air Canada flight attendants picket at airports; businesses seek government intervention
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The airline said it recently offered flight attendants a 38% increase in total compensation over four years, with a 25% raise in the first the union said the offer was "below inflation, below market value, below minimum wage" and would leave flight attendants unpaid for some hours of work, including waiting at airports ahead of flights or guiding the boarding process. They said that wages had not kept up with inflation, so that Air Canada's suggested pay increase was "in effect, a pay cut".Almost all of the attendants - 99.7% - voted to strike earlier this month. The company, meanwhile, has asked the government to representatives had facilitated some of the negotiations already, but the carrier went further and asked Canada's jobs minister, Patty Hajdu, to refer the matter for binding arbitration. How has the government responded? Earlier this week, Air Canada proposed having a third party step in to develop an agreement through what is called "binding arbitration", but the union rejected then asked the government to force the parties into binding arbitration, pointing to recent government interventions in rail, port and other negotiations. In binding arbitration, an independent third party sets the terms of a contract in an agreement that is legally union said in a statement on Friday that it had requested that Hajdu not intervene and, instead, allow "the parties to reach a resolution through free and fair negotiations, without undue interference". 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When Air Canada pilots went on strike in September 1998 for 13 days, all of the carrier's more than 600 daily flights were grounded, stranding passengers and costing the airline C$133m ($96m; £71m) before a negotiated deal was recent years, the federal government has stepped in during labour disputes by Air Canada workers by blocking strikes and imposing union said imposing arbitration would stop the first strike by the carrier's flight attendants since 1985. What to do if your flight is cancelled? Air Canada has said it will notify passengers if there is a change to the flight's scheduled departure time. As of Saturday, Air Canada was "strongly advising" passengers not to go to the airport unless they had tickets on other whose flights are cancelled will be notified and receive a full refund, the airline said. The company has also made arrangements with other Canadian and foreign carriers to provide customers alternative travel it's a round trip, return flights are not automatically cancelled in case the passengers reaches the destination. Those bookings can be cancelled with no fees.
