Montreal/Toronto (CNW) – On Wednesday August 13, Air Canada said that it has issued the statutory 72-hour lockout notice to the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) representing 10,000 flight attendants at Air Canada and Air Canada Rouge after the union provided notice it intends to begin a strike. To provide customers certainty, Air Canada will begin a phased wind down of most of its operations to be completed over the next three days. The airline has also sought government-directed arbitration to resolve the situation.
From the Air Canada Media release: Despite eight months of good faith negotiations that included the assistance of federal conciliators, and an offer to enter binding arbitration, Air Canada has been unable to reach a tentative agreement with the union. Air Canada tabled a revised comprehensive proposal to the union on August 11, which sought no concessions in return from its Flight Attendants and provided for a 38 per cent total compensation increase over four years. The offer also addressed the issue of ground pay, improved pensions and benefits, increased crew rest and contained other improvements. In an additional attempt to prevent travel disruption, Air Canada had also offered to CUPE to enter third-party, binding arbitration to settle the outstanding points of discussion. CUPE has responded by issuing a notice to begin a strike as early as August 16.
“We regret the impact a disruption will have on our customers, our stakeholders and the communities we serve. However, the disappointing conduct of CUPE’s negotiators and the union’s stated intention to launch a strike puts us in a position where our only responsible course of action is to provide certainty by implementing an orderly suspension of Air Canada’s and Air Canada Rouge’s operations through a lockout. As we have seen elsewhere in our industry with other labour disruptions, unplanned or uncontrolled shutdowns, such as we are now at risk of through a strike, can create chaos for travellers that is far, far worse,” said Michael Rousseau, President and Chief Executive of Air Canada.
“Our latest offer included a 38 per cent increase in total compensation over four years that would have made our flight attendants the best compensated in Canada, along with provisions for ground pay and other work-life balance, career and pension improvements. At the same time, we asked for no concessions from the union. Given this, while we remain available for discussions with CUPE, we have requested government-directed arbitration as we now view it as the only certain avenue to bring closure to bargaining and mitigate the impact on travellers, business and the Canadian economy.”
From CFIB: Corinne Pohlmann, Executive Vice-President of Advocacy at the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB), on the looming Air Canada strike.
“Small businesses are deeply concerned with the prospect of an Air Canada strike given the massive economic uncertainty currently facing the country. One-third of Canadian small firms depend on the summer tourism season for their revenues, and we cannot afford to lose a single day.
Given the ongoing tariff disputes with the United States and China, Canadian businesses are scrambling to find new suppliers and customers in other provinces or other countries. Removing Canada’s major domestic and international carrier from service would be another blow at this critical time.
We are calling on the airline and union to resolve this issue with no disruption to service. If this is unsuccessful, Ottawa needs to immediately intervene to avoid the significant economic damage a strike would have on Canada’s economy.”
