Canada’s largest airline, Air Canada, will begin suspending flights starting Thursday. The decision comes after the airline’s flight attendants union, Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), issued a 72-hour strike notice over failed contract negotiations.
The airline said it will suspend flights on Thursday and Friday, moving toward a full shutdown on Saturday of both Air Canada and Air Canada Rouge if a deal isn’t reached. “A planned labour disruption by CUPE, the union representing 10,000 flight attendants at Air Canada and Air Canada Rouge, is expected to begin Saturday, August 16, at 01:00 ET,” Air Canada said in a statement.
Air Canada also said it has been in contact with other airlines to help meet their customers’ travel needs. It explained that the airline will attempt to rebook customers’ canceled flights, possibly on other airlines, but acknowledged there will be major hurdles with rebooking in a timely manner. “If your travel is disrupted, you can always choose a refund,” it said.
“We regret the impact a disruption will have on our customers, our stakeholders, and the communities we serve,” Air Canada CEO Michael Rousseau said in a statement. “However, the disappointing conduct of CUPE’s negotiators and the union’s stated intention to launch a strike puts us in a position where our only responsible course of action is to provide certainty by implementing an orderly suspension of Air Canada’s and Air Canada Rouge’s operations through a lockout. As we have seen elsewhere in our industry with other labour disruptions, unplanned or uncontrolled shutdowns, such as we are now at risk of through a strike, can create chaos for travellers that is far, far worse.”
In a statement, the union said the airline has failed to address its concerns. The statement referenced “poverty wages” and unpaid labor, referring to time worked while planes are not in the air. The statement said: “Currently, Air Canada flight attendants perform hours of critical safety-related duties for free. The company has offered to begin compensating flight attendants for some of these duties—but only at 50% of their hourly rate, and the company is still refusing to compensate flight attendants for time spent responding to medical emergencies, fires, evacuations, and other safety and security-related issues on the ground.”
While most airlines only pay flight attendants for time in the air, some flight attendants have begun pushing back. Recently, flight attendants in North America have sought compensation for total hours worked. That includes time on the ground, where they board passengers before takeoff and waiting periods between flights occur.
“We have a lot of time in our days that we are unpaid,” Julie Hedrick, a flight attendant for American Airlines and president of the Association of Professional Flight Attendants union, told NPR last year. “All of us, of course, feel that we should be paid for the minute we get to work until we go home, but we have to look at the entire package,” she said.
In hopes of appeasing the union, Air Canada offered a 38% increase in total compensation for flight attendants over four years. It included a 25% raise in the first year. The union pushed back, saying it would only actually raise wages by 17.2% over four years, and didn’t account for inflation. Air Canada had offered to compensate flight attendants for some unpaid work, but only at half of their hourly rate.
This isn’t the first time Air Canada has threatened to shut down operations. Last year, after stalled talks with the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA) union, pilots prepared for a strike. Finally, an agreement was reached after Air Canada pilots voted in favor of a new agreement.
If a deal isn’t reached by the weekend, the disruption will certainly be widely felt. According to the airline’s corporate profile, Air Canada provides service to airports all over Canada, as well as six continents, and is the largest foreign carrier to the U.S. Air Canada provides service to more than 50 U.S. airports, with around 430 flights between the countries each day.