Deadline looms to avert Air Canada strike

Air Canada faced a midnight deadline Friday to avert a flight attendants strike that would shut down service, creating summer travel chaos for the carrier’s 130,000 daily passengers. The Canadian Union of Public Employees, which represents Air Canada’s 10,000 flight attendants, says that in addition to wage increases it wants to address uncompensated ground work, including during the boarding process.

Rafael Gomez, who heads the University of Toronto’s Center for Industrial Relations, told AFP it’s “common practice, even around the world” to compensate flights attendants based on time in the air. He said the union had built an effective communication campaign around the issue, creating a public perception of unfairness.

An average passenger, not familiar with common industry practice, could think, “‘I’m waiting to board the plane and there’s a flight attendant helping me, but they’re technically not being paid for that work,'” he said.

“That’s a very good issue to highlight.” Air Canada detailed its latest offer in a Thursday statement, specifying that under the terms a senior flight attendant would on average make CAN$87,000 ($65,000) by 2027.

CUPE has described Air Canada’s offers as “below inflation (and) below market value.”

The airline, which flies to 180 airports worldwide, began cancelling isolated flights on Thursday, part of what it called a gradual wind-down of service ahead of a potential full shutdown.

Chief operating officer Mark Nasr told reporters that “all flights will be paused by Saturday early morning,” without a deal. CUPE issued a 72-hour strike notice at 12:01 am (0401 GMT) Wednesday, meaning the labor action could begin one minute past midnight on Saturday.

Gomez said both sides were engaging in “brinkmanship.”

“This is peak season,” he said. “The airline does not want to lose hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue… They’re almost playing chicken with the flight attendants.” CUPE rejected a request to settle outstanding issues through arbitration.