Possible Air Canada flight attendants strike: Is your flight impacted and will you get a refund?
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Yes, according to the airline, customers whose flights are cancelled 'will be notified and can obtain a full refund.'
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Air Canada said in a news release on Wednesday that customers who have a flight booked between Aug. 15 and Aug. 18 and would like to make other travel plans can change their flight for free if the ticket was purchased (or Aeroplan points were redeemed for the flight) no later than Aug. 13.
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Anyone scheduled to travel between Aug. 15 and Aug. 18 can change their flight for free to another date between Aug. 21 and Sept. 12.
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'If you purchased a non-refundable fare, you may cancel your itinerary and receive the value of your ticket … to use on your next Air Canada booking,' says the airline.
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'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. 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.'
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More than 3,000 Air Canada flight attendants, members of the Canadian Air Line Flight Attendants' Association, went on strike over a dispute about wages in August 1985, the New York Times reported.
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The airline did want to have any travel disruptions so it ended up training 1,800 management personnel and university students as substitutes, per the Times. They received six to 10 days of training. The union argued that this would be a safety hazard. The head of the union told the publication that nothing 'compensates for experience in emergency situations.'
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'After the way Air Canada has stressed safety, I can't believe they took secretaries and students and trained them for six hours and are saying it's safe,' said Pamela Bartlett, who was a veteran flight attendant for the airline when the strike started in 1985, the Montreal Gazette reported.
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The airline maintained that the training course met government standards.
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After a six-week strike, flight attendants went back to work in October 1985 after reaching a contract settlement, per the Gazette. It was the first strike for flight attendants in the airline's history.
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As part of the deal, flight attendants would work up to 80 hours a month, rather than the previous 75. Although salary would remain the same for the first year, flight attendants would receive a lump sum payment of $900 to $1,000 — or between approximately $2,348 to $2,870 today, according to the Bank of Canada's inflation calculator.
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The airline and the union agreed to a wage increase of 3 per cent in the second and third years.
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In 1997, flight attendants for Air Ontario (formerly Great Lakes Airlines, now Air Canada Jazz, per the London Free Press) went on strike for 11 weeks, the Montreal Gazette reported.
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Lisa Hutchinson, a union spokeswoman at the time, told the Gazette that flight attendants 'made some gains in wages and working conditions.' Under the previous deal, attendants could work up to 15 hours a day on nine flights. The new deal offered a slightly shorter work day of 14 hours and eight flights.
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