A complete shutdown of Air Canada is imminent, threatening to ground the country’s dominant air carrier if an agreement is not reached by early Saturday between the airline and the union representing its flight attendants. More than 10,000 flight attendants are set to strike around 1 a.m. EST on Saturday, which would be followed by a company-imposed lockout, potentially affecting approximately 130,000 passengers daily.
The widespread industrial action could also leave some 25,000 Canadians abroad stranded. In anticipation of the disruption, Air Canada announced it expects to cancel 500 flights by the end of Friday, having already begun cancellations on Thursday. By Friday lunchtime, 87 domestic and 176 international flights scheduled for Friday and Saturday had been called off, according to aviation analytics firm Cirium. On Thursday, when the airline initiated a "phased wind down" of most operations, 18 domestic and four international flights were cancelled.
Canada's Federal Jobs Minister Patty Hajdu urged a resolution, stating: "We strongly urge the parties to work with federal mediators and get a deal done. Time is precious and Canadians are counting on you."
The Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), representing the flight attendants, declined to voluntarily enter arbitration, insisting: "The appropriate course of action is for Air Canada to return to the table and resume good faith bargaining." The union, which represents about 10,000 Air Canada flight attendants, and the airline cite disagreements over key issues, including pay raises, as having stalled contract negotiations.
Air Canada’s chief operating officer, Mark Nasr, indicated that the decision to lock out union members, even if it meant halting flights, would facilitate an orderly restart, which he said would "take a full week to complete" under the best circumstances.
The union and Air Canada have been in contract talks for about eight months without reaching a provisional agreement. CUPE held a vote at the end of July, with 99.7 per cent approving a strike. On Wednesday, it issued Air Canada a 72-hour strike notice. The airline responded with a lockout notice, stating it would prevent flight attendants from working on Saturday. The union confirmed it rejected a proposal from the airline for a binding arbitration process that would have averted a flight attendant strike, preferring to negotiate a deal for its members to vote on. The duration of any grounding remains uncertain.
