Latest news with #NathalieGarceau
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Air Canada to resume flights after government intervention on strike
Air Canada said it plans to resume flights on Sunday after the Canadian government intervened, forcing the airline and its striking flight attendants back to work and into arbitration. The strike, which began on Saturday morning, stranded more than 100,000 travelers around the world during the peak summer travel season. The North American country's largest airline said in a release that the first flights will resume Sunday evening but that it will take several days before its operations return to normal. It said some flights will be canceled over the next seven to 10 days until the schedule is stabilized. Nathalie Garceau, a spokesperson with the Canadian Union of Public Employees, told CBS News on Sunday that demonstrations will keep going around Canada, despite the statement from the airline. "We have not planned on cancelling it," she said in an email. Fewer than 12 hours after workers walked off the job, Federal Jobs Minister Patty Hajdu ordered the 10,000 flight attendants back to work, saying now is not the time to take risks with the economy and noting the unprecedented tariffs the U.S. has imposed on Canada. Hajdu referred the work stoppage to the Canada Industrial Relations Board. The airline said Sunday the Canada Industrial Relations Board has extended the term of the existing collective agreement until a new one is determined by the arbitrator. The shutdown of Canada's largest airline early Saturday was impacting about 130,000 people a day. Air Canada operates around 700 flights per day. According to numbers from aviation analytics provider Cirium, Air Canada had canceled a total of 671 flights by Saturday afternoon, following 199 on Friday. And another 96 flights scheduled for Sunday were already suspended. The bitter contract fight escalated Friday as the union turned down Air Canada's prior request to enter into government-directed arbitration, which allows a third-party mediator to decide the terms of a new contract. Flight attendants walked off the job around 1 a.m. EDT on Saturday. Around the same time, Air Canada said it would begin locking flight attendants out of airports. Last year, the government forced the country's two major railroads into arbitration with their labor union during a work stoppage. The union for the rail workers is suing, arguing the government is removing a union's leverage in negotiations. The Business Council of Canada had urged the government to impose binding arbitration in this case, too. And the Canadian Chamber of Commerce welcomed the intervention. Hajdu maintained that her Liberal government is not anti-union, saying it is clear the two sides are at an impasse. Passengers whose flights are impacted will be eligible to request a full refund on the airline's website or mobile app, according to Air Canada. The airline said it would also offer alternative travel options through other Canadian and foreign airlines when possible. Still, it warned that it could not guarantee immediate rebooking because flights on other airlines are already full "due to the summer travel peak." Air Canada and the Canadian Union of Public Employees have been in contract talks for about eight months, but they have yet to reach a tentative deal. Both sides have said they remain far apart on the issue of pay and the unpaid work flight attendants do when planes aren't in the air. The airline's latest offer included a 38% increase in total compensation, including benefits and pensions, over four years, that it said "would have made our flight attendants the best compensated in Canada." But the union pushed back, saying the proposed 8% raise in the first year didn't go far enough because of inflation. Examining the meteorite that landed in a Georgia house up close Exploring Hollywood Forever Cemetery's new 5-story mausoleum Air Canada flight attendants' strike grounds hundreds of planes Solve the daily Crossword
CBS News
2 days ago
- Business
- CBS News
Air Canada to resume flights after government forced arbitration with flight attendants
Air Canada said it plans to resume flights on Sunday after the Canadian government intervened, forcing the airline and its striking flight attendants back to work and into arbitration. The strike, which began on Saturday morning, stranded more than 100,000 travelers around the world during the peak summer travel season. The North American country's largest airline said in a release that the first flights will resume Sunday evening but that it will take several days before its operations return to normal. It said some flights will be canceled over the next seven to 10 days until the schedule is stabilized. Nathalie Garceau, a spokesperson with the Canadian Union of Public Employees, told CBS News on Sunday that demonstrations will keep going around Canada, despite the statement from the airline. "We have not planned on cancelling it," she said in an email. Fewer than 12 hours after workers walked off the job, Federal Jobs Minister Patty Hajdu ordered the 10,000 flight attendants back to work, saying now is not the time to take risks with the economy and noting the unprecedented tariffs the U.S. has imposed on Canada. Hajdu referred the work stoppage to the Canada Industrial Relations Board. The airline said Sunday the Canada Industrial Relations Board has extended the term of the existing collective agreement until a new one is determined by the arbitrator. The shutdown of Canada's largest airline early Saturday was impacting about 130,000 people a day. Air Canada operates around 700 flights per day. According to numbers from aviation analytics provider Cirium, Air Canada had canceled a total of 671 flights by Saturday afternoon, following 199 on Friday. And another 96 flights scheduled for Sunday were already suspended. The bitter contract fight escalated Friday as the union turned down Air Canada's prior request to enter into government-directed arbitration, which allows a third-party mediator to decide the terms of a new contract. Flight attendants walked off the job around 1 a.m. EDT on Saturday. Around the same time, Air Canada said it would begin locking flight attendants out of airports. Last year, the government forced the country's two major railroads into arbitration with their labor union during a work stoppage. The union for the rail workers is suing, arguing the government is removing a union's leverage in negotiations. The Business Council of Canada had urged the government to impose binding arbitration in this case, too. And the Canadian Chamber of Commerce welcomed the intervention. Hajdu maintained that her Liberal government is not anti-union, saying it is clear the two sides are at an impasse. Passengers whose flights are impacted will be eligible to request a full refund on the airline's website or mobile app, according to Air Canada. The airline said it would also offer alternative travel options through other Canadian and foreign airlines when possible. Still, it warned that it could not guarantee immediate rebooking because flights on other airlines are already full "due to the summer travel peak." Air Canada and the Canadian Union of Public Employees have been in contract talks for about eight months, but they have yet to reach a tentative deal. Both sides have said they remain far apart on the issue of pay and the unpaid work flight attendants do when planes aren't in the air. The airline's latest offer included a 38% increase in total compensation, including benefits and pensions, over four years, that it said "would have made our flight attendants the best compensated in Canada." But the union pushed back, saying the proposed 8% raise in the first year didn't go far enough because of inflation.
National Post
07-08-2025
- Business
- National Post
Air Canada offers 32.5% increase for flight attendants in contract talks
Air Canada offered its flight attendants an overall increase of more than 30 per cent over four years ahead of a potential strike, according to a person familiar with the negotiations. Article content The union representing the airline's more than 10,000 flight attendants announced Tuesday that its members voted 99.7 per cent to strike, putting them in a legal position to walk off the job as soon as Aug. 16. Airlines usually begin winding down operations and canceling flights days before a potential labour disruption. Article content Article content Air Canada proposed to increase total compensation, including benefits and bonuses, by about 20 per cent in the first year of a contract and a total of 32.5 per cent over four years, said the person, speaking on condition they not be identified in order to speak about private talks. Article content The airline also agreed to pay workers for some of the time they spend on the ground — a request made by the union. Currently, Air Canada flight attendants are only paid when the aircraft is in motion, a common practice in the industry, but one which is increasingly being challenged. Article content 'The company has never presented this offer to the union,' Nathalie Garceau, a spokesperson for the Canadian Union of Public Employees, said by email. 'If this indeed what the company plans to present when we resume negotiations on Friday, we look forward to discussing it then.' Article content Last month, United Airlines Holdings Inc.'s flight attendants rejected a contract providing cumulative pay increases of as much as 45.6 per cent over five years — the agents would have been paid while passengers were boarding. Delta Air Lines Inc. became the first U.S. airline to pay them during this period. Article content Article content Air Canada and the union failed to reach an agreement during a two-month conciliation process that ended in July. The latest 10-year contract expired at the end of March. Article content In a document posted on its website, Air Canada says that half of its mainline flight attendants earned more than $54,000 in 2024, excluding incentive rewards, pensions, and health benefits. Workers at Air Canada Rouge, the company's budget brand, earn less. Article content The union's president, Wesley Lesosky, said in a statement Tuesday that Air Canada is 'exploiting their own employees by severely underpaying flight attendants or refusing to pay them at all for safety-critical aspects of our jobs.' Article content A spokesperson for the airline said: 'Out of respect for the negotiation process, we do not comment on what each party may or may not have offered at the negotiation table.' Article content Last year, Air Canada's pilots got a compensation increase of 42 per cent over four years in a last-minute deal, averting a strike that would have grounded more than 1,000 daily flights worldwide. That agreement was reached after a wave of substantial pay increases for pilots across North America. Article content The airline paid $4.9 billion in wages, salaries and benefits last year, representing about 23 per cent of operating costs. It posted an operating income of $1.26 billion, or about 5.7 per cent of revenue. Article content
