As Air Canada’s flight attendants started their strike Saturday, the airline stated it has “suspended all operations” whereas the labour dispute unfolds.
The attendants gave a 72-hour strike discover earlier this week, after contract talks reached an deadlock.
Their union stated the corporate was not addressing key points similar to wages and unpaid work, and the strike took impact shortly after midnight on Saturday.
Quickly afterwards, the service started delaying and cancelling some flights. On Friday, it anticipated to scrap 500 flights, affecting 100,000 passengers.
With the strike in impact, the airline introduced it could halt flights on its Air Canada and Air Canada Rouge service.
Now travellers are scrambling as Canada’s largest airline shuts down in the course of the peak of summer season season, and the federal government is pleading with each side to return to an settlement. Here is what to know.
Why is Air Canada cancelling flights?
The airline, which operates in 64 nations and has a fleet of 259 plane, warned {that a} “full cessation of flying” would start on Saturday, if the labour points aren’t resolved. Air Canada Categorical flights, which carry about 20% of Air Canada’s each day prospects, is not going to be affected.
Nonetheless, a shutdown might have an effect on 130,000 each day prospects, together with 25,000 Canadians.
Upon receiving the strike discover, Air Canada issued its personal 72-hour lock-out discover and started winding down operations, delaying and cancelling flights over these three days.
Chief Operations Officer Mark Nasr defined the airline’s system was complicated and never one thing “we are able to begin or cease on the push of a button”.
What led to the strike?
The Canadian Union of Public Workers (CUPE), representing 10,000 Air Canada attendants, has asserted that it bargained in good religion with the airline for greater than eight months.
The airline stated it just lately supplied flight attendants a 38% enhance in complete compensation over 4 years, with a 25% elevate within the first yr.
However the union stated the provide was “beneath inflation, beneath market worth, beneath minimal wage” and would go away flight attendants unpaid for some hours of labor, together with ready at airports forward of flights or guiding the boarding course of.
They stated that wages had not stored up with inflation, in order that Air Canada’s steered pay enhance was “in impact, a pay reduce”.
Nearly all the attendants – 99.7% – voted to strike earlier this month. The corporate, in the meantime, has requested the federal government to intervene.
Authorities representatives had facilitated a few of the negotiations already, however the service went additional and requested Canada’s jobs minister, Patty Hajdu, to refer the matter for binding arbitration.
How has the federal government responded?
Earlier this week, Air Canada proposed having a 3rd celebration step in to develop an settlement by what is named “binding arbitration”, however the union rejected that.
It then requested the federal government to power the events into binding arbitration, pointing to current authorities interventions in rail, port and different negotiations.
In binding arbitration, an unbiased third celebration units the phrases of a contract in an settlement that’s legally enforceable.
The union stated in a press release on Friday that it had requested that Hajdu not intervene and, as an alternative, permit “the events to achieve a decision by free and truthful negotiations, with out undue interference”.
For the flight attendants, the one reply is for each side to return again to the desk.
Ought to Hajdu aspect with the corporate, she would ask Canada’s Industrial Relations Board to impose binding arbitration so as to defend the economic system, based on Reuters, which reported that the board sometimes agrees to such requests, however after it has studied them for just a few days.
There’s stress from different elements of Canada, as effectively. The Board of Commerce for the Toronto area has known as for a authorities intervention , whereas the province of Newfoundland and Labrador launched a press release describing the influence of a strike as “catastrophic” for the tourism trade in the course of the summer season season.
How lengthy will the strike final?
That is unclear.
When Air Canada pilots went on strike in September 1998 for 13 days, all the service’s greater than 600 each day flights have been grounded, stranding passengers and costing the airline C$133m ($96m; £71m) earlier than a negotiated deal was reached.
Lately, the federal authorities has stepped in throughout labour disputes by Air Canada staff by blocking strikes and imposing agreements.
The union stated imposing arbitration would cease the primary strike by the service’s flight attendants since 1985.
What to do in case your flight is cancelled?
Air Canada has stated it’ll notify passengers if there’s a change to the flight’s scheduled departure time.
As of Saturday, Air Canada was “strongly advising” passengers to not go to the airport until that they had tickets on different airways.
Prospects whose flights are cancelled might be notified and obtain a full refund, the airline stated. The corporate has additionally made preparations with different Canadian and overseas carriers to offer prospects different journey choices.
If it is a spherical journey, return flights aren’t robotically cancelled in case the passengers reaches the vacation spot.
These bookings might be cancelled with no charges.
