Air Canada labour dispute won’t impact Canadian North, Air Inuit, airlines say

Two of the Canadian Arctic’s largest airlines say a strike by Air Canada’s flight attendants or a lockout by the company would not affect their services.

On Wednesday, the Canadian Union of Public Employees representing approximately 10,000 attendants at Air Canada issued a 72-hour strike notice, meaning a job action could start just before 1 a.m. Saturday. Air Canada also issued a lockout notice on Wednesday.

“We don’t anticipate [any] impact to our operation. Our team at Canadian North have been in touch with Air Canada and we are ready to support however we can,” Canadian North spokesperson Lauren D’Oliveira said in an email Thursday.

Air Inuit, in an unsigned email response to Nunatsiaq News, said Thursday, “As the Air Canada conflict does not concern our airline, nor does it impact our operations, we will not be commenting.”

Air Canada’s unionized flight attendants are seeking an increase in the starting-pay rate and higher wages overall to keep pace with inflation.

According to an Air Canada news release Aug. 4, as of 2015 — the start date for the 10-year collective agreement between the airline and union which expired this year at the end of March — the starting wage for a flight attendant in 2015 was $25.13 an hour. If that same attendant worked 10 years in the same position, they would currently earn $63.07 an hour.

In its own release Aug. 11, the union said, “Junior flight attendants who work full-time and earn just $1,952 per month before taxes are bearing the worst” burden but that all flight attendants have been “crushed” by inflation over the life of the contract.

In negotiations, attendants also seek to be paid for all their work-related duties. Currently, they are not paid until the airplane’s cabin doors close in preparation for departure.

On Friday afternoon, a poll by Abacus Data commissioned by the Canadian Union of Public Employees, which represents the flight attendants, found 88 per cent of Canadians support flight attendants being paid for all of the time they work.

Support for flights attendants compared to Air Canada was mixed, with the poll reporting 59 per cent support the workers, 12 per cent back the company and 30 per cent said they didn’t know.

On Friday, the union asked Patty Hajdu, the federal minister of jobs and families, to reject the airline’s request for binding arbitration.

Air Canada has already begun cancelling flights in anticipation of the strike. Affected passengers are advised to contact Air Canada about refunds.

Under Canadian Transportation Agency regulations, a strike is classified as being beyond an airline’s control. If a strike disrupts service, airlines are required to rebook passengers on their competitors’ airlines at no cost to the traveller.