Air Canada flight attendants union set to answer binding arbitration ask
The Canadian Union of Public Employees' Air Canada component asked to have until noon eastern Friday to respond to the airline's request to the federal government for binding arbitration.
In an X post on Thursday, Jobs and Families Minister Patty Hajdu said she had agreed to the union's request, but stressed that 'deals that are made at the bargaining table are the best ones,' while urging both sides to reach an agreement.
Both sides are less than 24 hours away from possible job action, with each having called on the other to return to negotiations.
Air Canada executives defended their decision Thursday to request binding arbitration, saying they still want to reach a deal, but asked the government to consider intervening if negotiations or 'consensual arbitration' do not occur.
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The union, however, criticized the airline's move, saying it has called on the federal government to 'interfere with negotiations.'
3:31
Air Canada starts cancelling flights at Vancouver airport ahead of strike
With the clock ticking down, the airline has already begun cancelling hundreds of flights.
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Air Canada chief operations officer Mark Nasr told reporters on Thursday that by the end of Friday, he expects 500 flights to have been cancelled, with a full grounding as of early Saturday morning.
He said the cancellations before a strike or lockout has even begun are because 'sudden or unmanaged work stoppages produce a significantly worse disruption to travel than a planned suspension of flying.'
Nasr added that cancelling over several days would allow for an 'orderly restart' when job action ends, 'which under the best circumstance will take a full week to complete.'
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According to the airline, about 130,000 travellers a day could be impacted during a strike.
Those impacted by cancellations have been advised they'll receive a text message and email advising them of their cancellation. They will then be offered a complete refund or the option of potentially being booked on another airline to complete their trip.
Air Canada said if a person cannot be rebooked, they will receive a refund.
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Some passengers flying out of Winnipeg's Richardson International Airport on Friday say they're feeling frustrated and stranded as Air Canada began cancelling flights ahead of a flight attendants' strike. More than 10,000 flight attendants could walk off the job at midnight CT on Saturday if the Canadian Union of Public Employees, the union representing them, and Air Canada don't reach a deal on Friday. Members of the Air Canada component of CUPE voted 99.7 per cent in favour of a strike mandate last week. The two sides said they were at an impasse on Tuesday. Tunde Dixon, who was travelling to London via Montreal, said he was notified his connecting flight was cancelled less than two hours before he was scheduled to leave Winnipeg. "It's disheartening," Dixon said, standing in a long line of passengers waiting to get rescheduling help from customer service agents. "Getting here and getting stranded is not good at all." Trevor MacKay, who was flying back home to Vancouver after attending a tattoo convention in Winnipeg last weekend, said he felt like "one of the lucky ones" without a cancelled flight on Friday. "I knew before I flew out there might be a pending strike, and I was really hoping that my deadline would squeak in," he said, adding he was getting out Friday "just by the thread of my jeans." Winnipeg Airports Authority communications director Kerilee Falloon said the impending strike had a minimal effect on flights Friday, but "we suspect that may change in the coming days." Falloon encouraged travellers flying with Air Canada to check their flight status on the airport's website before arriving at Richardson. Passengers should receive an email or text notification from the airline if their flights are cancelled or delayed, she said. 'Poverty-level wages' Laurence De Moerlooze was one passenger with a cancelled flight, from Toronto to Zurich. She still planned to fly from Winnipeg to Toronto in the hopes of finding another way to Switzerland. "We will probably have to find accommodation, because I really don't think we're going to find a flight today," De Moerlooze said, adding she's seen the cost of flights skyrocket on other airlines' websites in recent days. Air Canada said it would gradually suspend flights on Friday, with all flights set to be cancelled over the weekend if a deal isn't reached. About 130,000 customers could be affected each day, the airline said. De Moerlooze said it's "insane" that Air Canada didn't start cancelling flights earlier in order to find alternatives for Canadians. But "even if it's frustrating, I support the strike, because I think it's unfair to have people [going] unpaid for work they do," she said. A significant majority of respondents in a new Angus Reid Institute poll said they agreed flight attendants' current working conditions are "unfair." The workers' previous 10-year contract expired in March, and the union and Air Canada have been in talks since then. CUPE says flight attendants are only paid when they are in the air, and their hours spent doing safety checks and helping passengers board and deplane are unpaid. The wages for the hours they are paid for are too low to keep up with inflation, according to the union. Julia Smith, a University of Manitoba labour relations professor, said many Canadians have been shocked to learn that flight attendants are not paid for the work they do on the ground. "For most of us, we go to work and we're paid for the hours that we're on our job, from the time we get there until the time that we leave," Smith said in a Thursday interview with CBC Radio's Up to Speed. "For flight attendants, it's common in the industry to be paid from the time the door closes to the time the plane lands." 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