WestJet says that despite reaching a deal with its mechanics’ union to end the strike that stranded tens of thousands of passengers over the Canada Day long weekend, flights are still likely to face disruptions this week.
A deal was reached between the Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association (AMFA) and the Calgary-based airliner on Sunday night, ending the 48-hour strike.
Despite intervention from the federal government to impose binding arbitration between the parties ahead of the July long weekend, the Canada Industrial Relations Board had allowed the strike to go ahead. The deal was reached without need for binding arbitration, said Ian Evershed, a spokesperson with AMFA, in a statement to Global News on Tuesday.
The strike saw chaos at Canadian airports for thousands of passengers who had airfare booked with WestJet over the weekend, the start of the busy summer travel season.
The airline said it had cancelled around 830 flights scheduled between Thursday and Monday. It later said another 214 flights were cancelled on Monday on top of 78 that had already been chopped, and 27 flights have been cancelled for Tuesday.
It’s going to take time to get back up to full operations, WestJet warned in a statement Monday.
With some 680 maintenance workers on strike over the weekend, the airline said it grounded 130 jets at 13 airports over the weekend.
“Given the significant impact to WestJet’s network over the past few days, returning to business-as-usual flying will take time and further disruptions over the coming week are to be anticipated as the airline gets aircraft and crew back into position,” the airline said.
Evershed said in an email Tuesday that all AMFA members are not the cause for the hold-up. All maintenance engineers have reported back to work and are “doing everything they can to safely get the airline up and running,” he said.
In a statement announcing the end of the strike, the AMFA thanked Canadians for their patience over the weekend.
“We believe this outcome would not have been possible without the strike, but we do regret the disruption and inconvenience it has caused the traveling public over the Canada Day holiday period. The timing was coincidental as the negotiation process did not follow a predictable timeline,” the statement read.
WestJet added in its statement on Monday that a “lack of clarity from the government and the decisions taken by the CIRB allowed for a strike to occur amidst binding arbitration.
“With no path forward to resolution, both parties made essential movements to find common ground and achieve an agreement,” the airline said.
Global News reached out to Labour Minister Seamus O’Regan Jr. to ask for his response to WestJet’s claims. A spokesperson for his office responded to say that the minister would have “more to say in the coming days” about the resolution and any action he might take but could not provide further comment or a timeline for the response.
O’Regan had previously expressed frustration Monday in a post on X that the strike had worn Canadians’ patience “too thin.”
“Collective bargaining is the responsibility of the parties. The responsibility of the government is to facilitate and mediate that bargaining. The parties finally did their jobs,” he wrote.
More to come.
— with files from Global News’ Uday Rana and Aaron Sousa and The Canadian Press