Air Canada strike: union tells Ottawa to stay out of it

While labour talks between Air Canada and its pilots continue, the union representing the pilots has a message for the Canadian government: stay out of it.

The Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA), which represents more than 5,200 pilots at Air Canada, released a statement Friday night (Sept. 13), asking Ottawa to respect workers’ collective bargaining rights and refrain from intervening in the process.

“Recent government interventions to end labour disputes in the federal sector have negatively altered employers’ willingness to do the hard work required to conclude fair collective agreements with their employees,” stated ALPA Canada president Capt. Tim Perry.

“Instead, employers now see that government intervention as an enticing alternative to a negotiated settlement. With recent federal intervention, employers are treating government as their silent partner and have included intervention as part of their bargaining strategy, to the detriment of Canadian workers.”

Perry went on to say that government intervention in the collective bargaining process “violates the constitutional rights and freedoms of Canadians.”

“On behalf of all ALPA Canada members, I insist the federal government allow collective bargaining to run its course, free from intervention, and allow any Parties to a labour dispute to remain at the bargaining table to put in the hard work required to come to a freely negotiated agreement,” he said.

The clock is ticking

It's the latest on how things are going at the bargaining table.

The clock is ticking as negotiations between Air Canada and its pilots approach a midnight deadline, when either side could trigger the start of a shutdown at Canada's flag carrier, which includes Air Canada Rouge.

After more than 14 months of negotiations, the two groups, starting Sunday (Sept. 15), will be allowed to provide 72-hour notice of a strike or lockout – a move that could disrupt the travel plans of the more than 100,000 passengers who fly Air Canada daily.

Comments shared by the two groups over the past week have suggested that the talks are nearing an impasse

Air Canada says the union is being inflexible with "unreasonable wage demands," prompting CEO Michael Rousseau to call for the government to be ready to intervene.

The airline says it has offered “unprecedented wage increases” – increases of up to 30 per cent – to its pilots, which the union has refused, citing U.S.-based wage levels.

As of Thursday (Sept. 12), a tentative agreement had been reached, but only on 70 per cent of more than 1,000 proposed changes suggested by ALPA, said Air Canada in a press release.

The ALPA has said Air Canada’s greed is holding up the negotiations as the airline continues to post big profits while expecting pilots to accept below-market compensation.

Possible cancellations

As per a contingency plan released earlier this week, Air Canada was expected to begin cancelling flights on Friday (Sept. 13) ahead of Sunday’s strike deadline, but an airline spokesperson told PAX that morning that no strike-related cancellations had been made just yet.

Posting to its corporate Facebook account, Air Canada wrote that flight cancellations could begin as early as Sept. 15 if a deal isn’t reached.

The Association of Canadian Travel Agencies and Travel Advisors (ACTA) is calling on all groups to work things out as fast as possible.

“We are urging Air Canada, the [Air Line Pilots Association] union and federal government to work hard together and come to a resolution,” said Wendy Paradis, ACTA's president, addressing some 500 travel advisors at the Toronto Congress Centre on Thursday at the association’s travel industry Summit. “Our message is to negotiate and come to a resolution as soon as possible.”

"We’re not going to do that"

While the ALPA’s recent comments suggest that Ottawa has been getting involved, recent remarks by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau tell a different story. 

Speaking to media this week, Trudeau said it's up to Air Canada and the ALPA to reach a deal to avoid a strike or lockout — not the federal government.

“Every time there’s a strike, people say, ‘Oh, you’ll get the government to come in and fix it.’ We’re not going to do that,” Trudeau said, speaking to reporters in Montreal on Friday, as reported by Global News.

“I’m not going to put my thumb on the scale on either side. It is up to Air Canada and the pilots’ union to do the work to figure out how to make sure that they are not hurting millions of Canadians who rely on air travel, thousands and thousands of businesses across this country who will be hurt if they can’t get the work done at the bargaining table,” he said.

Trudeau said the government will instead put “pressure” on Air Canada and the ALPA to reach a deal at the negotiating table.

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