The union representing Air Canada flight attendants says it has served the company with a 72-hour strike notice, while advising members the airline has issued its own plan to lock out employees early Saturday morning.
The Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) Air Canada component announced the move to members shortly after midnight Wednesday, saying the strike notice had been issued at 12:58 a.m. eastern daylight time.
“This decision was not made lightly, but it is necessary,” the union wrote in a bargaining update. “We are ready. We are strong and we will not back down.”
Wesley Lesosky, president of CUPE’s Air Canada component, said in an interview he felt progress had been made in talks but when it came to wages and unpaid work, it “kind of stopped.”
He told Global News for a deal to be reached, the company needs to come back to the table.
“We didn’t file strike notice to go on strike, we filed strike notice to apply the pressure to the company who holds the final cards in this,” Lesosky said.
“Compensating one for labour, that’s one of the issues that needs to be addressed and that’s well within their cart. So to walk away from the table instead of acknowledge the issues is very short-sighted, but again it’s still not our goal to strike, our goal is to come to a deal at the table and ratify it.”
CUPE’s notice comes hours after Air Canada said negotiations with the union had reached an “impasse.”
The airline said in a news release Tuesday that the union had submitted a counter-offer that seeks “unsustainable” and “exorbitant” increases to compensation, and also rejected an offer by the company to enter arbitration with a third party.
The union, in its bargaining update, also said the company had issued a lockout notice at 1:30 a.m. EDT on Wednesday, with the lockout set to begin at 1:30 a.m. on Saturday.
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“With no reasonable prospect of reaching an agreement at this time, we cannot responsibly leave our respective customers, employees, and operations in daily uncertainty, under the indefinite risk of a CUPE work stoppage,” Michael Abbott, vice-president of labour relations for Air Canada and Air Canada Rouge, wrote in a letter to the union.
Lesosky added he’s hopeful Air Canada could return to the table “last minute” before Saturday, but is not “overly optimistic.”
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“But again, they’re concerned about their customers just like we are. They are concerned about the travelling public and the possible grounding of the airplanes,” he said. “They’re in full control, so I would expect them to come back to the table if they are truly that concerned, which I believe they are.”
In its news release on Tuesday, Air Canada said it had proposed binding, third-party arbitration, which the company argued would “protect the interests of the parties.” The union rejected the process, the company said.
Air Canada also said it’s now looking at all remaining options, “including a request for government-directed arbitration,” to prevent a service disruption.
CUPE has, in turn, called on the federal government to respect “its right to take job action in pursuit of a fair contract.”
In a statement posted on X on Tuesday, Jobs and Families Minister Patty Hajdu said she had met with both Air Canada and its flight attendants’ union.
“I am closely monitoring the situation and encourage both parties to stay at the table until a deal is found,” she wrote, adding federal mediators would remain available.
Asked Wednesday if Hajdu had received a request for government-directed arbitration or had reaction to the strike and lockout notices, a spokesperson for her office referred Global News to the statement on X.
Flight cancellations set to begin
Air Canada says it serves about 130,000 customers daily through its mainline and Rouge flights who could face a disruption from a strike, including 25,000 Canadians seeking to return home from abroad “who could be stranded.”
It said it will begin a gradual suspension of flights to allow an orderly shutdown as it faces the potential strike, with the first flights expected to be cancelled Thursday and more on Friday. A complete cessation of flying by Air Canada and Air Canada Rouge will occur by the weekend.
Air Canada Express flights operated by Jazz and PAL Airlines will continue to operate as normal.
The airline says customers whose flights are cancelled will be notified and they’ll be eligible for a full refund, adding it has made arrangements with other Canadian and foreign carriers to provide customers alternative travel options to the extent possible.
Global News reached out to Porter Airlines, WestJet, Flair and Air Transat to inquire if Air Canada had been in contact, as well as if the airlines were adjusting flights and routes ahead of the strike.
Porter said in an email it has seen an increase in “close-in bookings,” which it said may be a result of travel uncertainty but added they are operating on a full schedule to give travellers options.
It also said it has passenger protection agreements with a number of airlines to assist any passengers whose plans have been disrupted, though didn’t specify if Air Canada had been directly in contact.
WestJet said it’s monitoring the situation and will explore opportunities to support Canadians in situations there’s an “uncontrollable impact,” but added it has no plans to adjust its operations.
In an email to Global News, Flair’s vice-president of commercial Eric Tanner said it is actively monitoring demand trends and operating “with some of the highest load factors” in Canada and demand is strong.
What are some sticking points?
More than 10,000 mainline Air Canada and Rouge flight attendants would be a part of the strike, after the union and company have been negotiating on a new collective agreement since the beginning of the year.
The company said Tuesday that its latest offer includes a 38 per cent increase in total compensation over four years and addresses the union’s issues around “ground pay,” or duties performed on the ground between flights, which CUPE says has been unpaid.
But CUPE said the airline’s latest offer is “below inflation, below market value, below minimum wage — and still leaves flight attendants unpaid for all hours of work.”
The union has also said flight attendants at the airline are often expected to perform “unpaid labour,” adding there’s a gendered element to this system since the majority of flight attendants are women.
Air Canada flight attendants are not paid for duties they perform before and after flights, including critical safety checks, boarding and deplaning procedures, assisting passengers with special needs and preparing the cabin, the union said.
The airline said time spent on onboarding and performing other on-ground tasks is covered under the current collective agreement, which covers “Duty Period,” beginning one hour before flight departures and ending 15 minutes after arrival.
Wednesday’s strike and lockout notices also come two days after more than 1,000 flight attendants gathered outside four of Canada’s major airports in a national “day of action,” where they reiterated calls for an end to unpaid work and “poverty wages.”
—with files from Global News’ Sean Boynton and Uday Rana and The Canadian Press
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