What to know as Air Canada flights grounded and attendants strike

While Air Canada online agents began their strike on Saturday, the airline said it “suspended all operations” while the labor dispute takes place.

The attendants gave a notice of strike of 72 hours earlier this week, after the contractual interviews reached a dead end.

Their union said that the company did not attack key questions such as wages and unpaid work, and that the strike came into force shortly after midnight on Saturday.

Shortly after, the carrier began to delay and cancel certain flights. Friday, he expected to remove 500 flights, affecting 100,000 passengers.

With the strike in force, the airline has announced that it would stop flights on its Air Canada and Red Air Canada service.

Now, travelers rush while the largest airline in Canada stops at the height of the summer season, and the government pleads with both parties to conclude an agreement. Here’s what you need to know.

The airline, which operates in 64 countries and has a fleet of 259 planes, warned that a “complete cessation of the flight” would begin on Saturday, if work problems are not resolved. Air Canada Express flights, which transport around 20% of Air Canada’s daily customers, will not be affected.

However, closing could affect 130,000 daily customers, including 25,000 Canadians.

After receiving the strike, Air Canada published its own 72 -hour locking notice and began to reduce operations, delaying and canceling flights during these three days.

Operations director Mark Nasr explained that the airline system was complex and not something “that we can start or stop at the push of a button.”

The Canadian Public Employee Syndicate (CUP), representing 10,000 Air Canada attendants, said it had negotiated in good faith with the airline for more than eight months.

The airline said it recently offered on -board agents an increase of 38% in total remuneration over four years, with an increase of 25% in the first year.

But the union declared that the offer was “below inflation, below the market value, below the minimum wage” and would leave the agents unpaid for a few hours of work, including the wait at airports before flights or guide the boarding process.

They said that wages had not followed inflation, so that the suggested salary increase in Air Canada was “a drop in salary”.

Almost all the attendants – 99.7% – voted to strike earlier this month. The company, on the other hand, asked the government to intervene.

Government representatives had already facilitated certain negotiations, but the carrier went further and asked the Minister of Canada, Patty Hajdu, to return the question for binding arbitration.

Earlier this week, Air Canada proposed to have a third step to develop an agreement through what is called “binding arbitration”, but the union rejected it.

He then asked the government to force the parties to a binding arbitration, highlighting recent government interventions in rail, port and other negotiations.

In a binding arbitration, an independent third party defines the terms of a contract in a legally enforceable agreement.

The union said on Friday in a statement that he had asked that Hajdu did not intervene and, instead, allowed “the parties to achieve a resolution by free and fair negotiations, without undue interference”.

For on -board agents, the only answer is that the two parties come back to the table.

If Hajdu with the Company, she would ask the Council of Industrial Relations of Canada to impose binding arbitration in order to protect the economy, according to Reuters, which indicated that the board of directors generally accepts such requests, but after studying for a few days.

There is also pressure from other parts of Canada. The Toronto Region Commercial Council called for a government intervention, while the province of Newfoundland and Labrador published a statement describing the impact of a strike as “catastrophic” for the tourism industry during the summer season.

It is not clear.

When the Air Canada pilots went on strike in September 1998 for 13 days, every 500 daily flights of the carrier were put to the ground, failing passengers and costing the airline $ 133 million ($ 96 million; 71 million pounds Sterling) before a negotiated agreement was concluded.

In recent years, the federal government has intervened during disputes of work by Air Canada workers by blocking strikes and imposing agreements.

The union said that the imposing arbitration would stop the first strike by carrier’s ons since 1985.

Air Canada said it would advise passengers if there is a change in the scheduled departure time.

Air Canada was advised “strongly” on Saturday that passengers do not go to the airport unless you have tickets to other airlines.

Customers whose flights are canceled will be informed and will receive a full refund, said the airline. The company has also made arrangements with other Canadian and foreign carriers to offer customers alternative travel options.

If it is a round trip, return flights are not automatically canceled in case the passengers reach the destination.

These reservations can be canceled at no cost.