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After more than seven months of negotiations, Air Canada flight attendants voted 99.7 per cent in favour of a strike mandate on Aug. 5. If a deal can’t be reached between the airline and the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), workers will be in a legal strike position as of midnight on Aug. 16. Here’s a look at what a potential work stoppage could mean for the airline and its customers.
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Since the beginning of the year, CUPE and Air Canada have been negotiating a new contract for the 10,000 flight attendants who work for the airline and its discount carrier, Rouge. The previous 10-year agreement expired at the end of March.
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CUPE says flight attendants are paid for “block time,” which encompasses takeoff until landing. The core issues the union wants to address are scheduling, wages not keeping up with inflation and the “unpaid duties” flight attendants perform before and after flights, which includes “critical safety checks, boarding and deplaning procedures, assisting passengers with special needs and preparing the cabin,” CUPE said in a statement.
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Air Canada said flight attendant compensation, including for ground time, “is consistent with that at most global carriers.”
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“The issue of ground time is discussed with the union as part of a more general conversation about overall compensation,” the airline said on its website.
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After the parties failed to reach an agreement during a 60-day round of negotiations with a federal conciliation officer, a 21-day cooling-off period started on July 26. On Aug. 16, either side can issue a 72-hour notice for a strike or lockout. However, both Air Canada and CUPE say their goal is to secure a new contract at the bargaining table.
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What would a strike mean for Air Canada’s business?
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Air Canada operates 500 domestic, 430 U.S. and 170 international flights daily, serving airports across Canada and abroad.
In case of a strike, Air Canada would face widespread cancellations across its core operations — potentially grounding more than 1,000 flights per day.
Martin Firestone, president of Travel Secure Inc., said all flights would be cancelled on Aug. 16 if the strike does go ahead. “A few days before August 16, they (Air Canada) would start making cancellations and on the strike date, everything would be cancelled,” he said.
Key hubs, such as Toronto Pearson, Montreal Trudeau and Vancouver, would presumably become congested, with travellers scrambling to rebook.
Although Air Canada must attempt to rebook affected passengers — either on its own flights or partner carriers — travellers could still encounter delays and extensive monetary losses for hotel bookings, etc.
Firestone noted that a strike would impact passengers beyond just air fare losses.
“The cost of a strike like this is not about your $400 airfare, it’s about the $20,000 home that you can’t get to or the cruise that you can’t get to. So it has tremendous ramifications,” he said.
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