First Air reaches tentative wage-benefit deal with flight attendants

The union that represents First Air flight attendants reached a tentative deal with the airline early Sept. 9.

With the help of a federal conciliator, the Canadian Union of Public Employees, in a news release, said the two parties negotiated for 18 hours before agreeing on what they described as a new 22-month contract, which will run retroactively from April 1, 2014 until Dec. 31, 2015.

“We are happy with the result and we will recommend the deal to our membership,” said Ken Smith, CUPE component president, in the Sept. 9 release.

First Air flight attendants have been without a contract since April 2014.

Contract talks broke down in late June, after 17 days at the bargaining table, when CUPE members said that First Air asked for more concessions.

That came after flight attendants had already agreed to a wage freeze, CUPE said at the time.

With another dozen items yet to be negotiated, the union filed for conciliation.

The flight attendants will vote on the new deal in the coming weeks, but until then, details of the new agreement will not be made public.

CUPE represents 87 flight attendants at First Air who are based out of Iqaluit, Ottawa, Yellowknife and Edmonton.