[Canada] Air Canada strike ends as airline and flight attendants agree

Air Canada and the Canadian Union for Public Employees (CUPE) - a union representing the airline’s flight attendants - have reached a tentative agreement, ending a days-long strike that cancelled thousands of flights and stranded hundreds of thousands of passengers at the height of the summer season, CNN reports.

“Flight attendants at Air Canada and Air Canada Rouge have reached a tentative agreement, achieving transformational change for our industry after a historic fight to affirm our Charter rights,” Hugh Pouliot - CUPE spokesperson - said in an August 19 statement. “Unpaid work is over. We have reclaimed our voice and our power.”

Union members must now vote on the agreement to make it permanent. If they vote it down, the strike could resume. The two sides came back to the table on August 18 for the first time since the strike began early on August 16.

The strike involved around 10,000 flight attendants and forced the cancellation of more than 700 flights a day by Air Canada and its Air Canada Rouge subsidiary, flight tracking site FlightAware told CNN, and many flights may not resume immediately. FlightAware reportedly found more than 500 flights already cancelled for August 19, and more than 160 cancelled flights already for August 20.

Air Canada’s statement on the deal said that “only customers with confirmed bookings whose flights are shown as operating should go to the airport.” The airline also warned that it could take a week to 10 days to fully resume its schedule, because “aircraft and crew are out of position.” It began winding down its operations on August 14, two days before the strike was due to take place.

“The suspension of our service is extremely difficult for our customers. We deeply regret and apologise for the impact on them of this labour disruption,” Air Canada said in a statement. “Our priority now is to get them moving as quickly as possible.”

The strike took place despite an August 16 order from the Canadian Jobs Minister instructing Air Canada and its employees to resume operations and end the strike.

Members of the Air Canada component of CUPE voted 99.7 per cent in favour of the strike and walked out around 1 a.m. ET on August 16. The workers were seeking wage increases and paid compensation for work when planes are grounded, and while they perform critical safety checks, attend to onboard medical and safety emergencies, and assist passengers with boarding and deplaning, CUPE said.

However, the primary issue is wages, which the union say have fallen well behind industry standards and the cost of living. According to CUPE, since 2000, inflation has increased prices in Canada by 169 per cent and average full-time wages across the nation have increased 210 per cent. Yet entry-level Air Canada flight attendants’ wages have increased only 10 per cent - just $3 per hour - over the past 25 years.

Source: CNN

(Quotes via original reporting)

Air Canada and the Canadian Union for Public Employees (CUPE) - a union representing the airline’s flight attendants - have reached a tentative agreement, ending a days-long strike that cancelled thousands of flights and stranded hundreds of thousands of passengers at the height of the summer season, CNN reports.

“Flight attendants at Air Canada and Air Canada Rouge have reached a tentative agreement, achieving transformational change for our industry after a historic fight to affirm our Charter rights,” Hugh Pouliot - CUPE spokesperson - said in an August 19 statement. “Unpaid work is over. We have reclaimed our voice and our power.”

Union members must now vote on the agreement to make it permanent. If they vote it down, the strike could resume. The two sides came back to the table on August 18 for the first time since the strike began early on August 16.

The strike involved around 10,000 flight attendants and forced the cancellation of more than 700 flights a day by Air Canada and its Air Canada Rouge subsidiary, flight tracking site FlightAware told CNN, and many flights may not resume immediately. FlightAware reportedly found more than 500 flights already cancelled for August 19, and more than 160 cancelled flights already for August 20.

Air Canada’s statement on the deal said that “only customers with confirmed bookings whose flights are shown as operating should go to the airport.” The airline also warned that it could take a week to 10 days to fully resume its schedule, because “aircraft and crew are out of position.” It began winding down its operations on August 14, two days before the strike was due to take place.

“The suspension of our service is extremely difficult for our customers. We deeply regret and apologise for the impact on them of this labour disruption,” Air Canada said in a statement. “Our priority now is to get them moving as quickly as possible.”

The strike took place despite an August 16 order from the Canadian Jobs Minister instructing Air Canada and its employees to resume operations and end the strike.

Members of the Air Canada component of CUPE voted 99.7 per cent in favour of the strike and walked out around 1 a.m. ET on August 16. The workers were seeking wage increases and paid compensation for work when planes are grounded, and while they perform critical safety checks, attend to onboard medical and safety emergencies, and assist passengers with boarding and deplaning, CUPE said.

However, the primary issue is wages, which the union say have fallen well behind industry standards and the cost of living. According to CUPE, since 2000, inflation has increased prices in Canada by 169 per cent and average full-time wages across the nation have increased 210 per cent. Yet entry-level Air Canada flight attendants’ wages have increased only 10 per cent - just $3 per hour - over the past 25 years.

Source: CNN

(Quotes via original reporting)