“No strike or lock-out” after Air Canada flight attendants reject deal by 99.1%

Air Canada’s flight attendants have rejected the tentative deal that ended a strike at the airline last month.

The Air Canada Component ratification vote, which focused on wages, closed on Saturday afternoon (Sept. 6), with 99.1 per cent of members voting “No,” the union shared on its Facebook page.

CUPE says 94.6 per cent of Air Canada’s flight attendants voted on the deal, which aims to raise wages for workers and establish a pay structure for time worked when aircraft are on the ground.

Air Canada and CUPE will now enter mediation to resolve their outstanding issues, with both sides saying that another strike is off the table, the airline confirmed in a press release Saturday. 

“This agreement was achieved without concessions from the union and included improvements to wages, pensions and benefits, while also including a mutually agreed-to modernization of compensation for work performed on the ground,” Air Canada said.

READ MORE: Strike amnesty for AC FAs; CUPE pushes for wage edge over Air Transat; members voice concerns

Air Canada says it and CUPE contemplated this potential outcome and mutually agreed that if the tentative agreement was not ratified, “the wage portion would be referred to mediation and, if no agreement was reached at that stage, to arbitration.”

The parties also agreed that no labour disruption could be initiated, and therefore “there will be no strike or lock-out, and flights will continue to operate.”

Air Canada said it is “fully committed to the mediation and arbitration process.”

“We deeply appreciate the patience and the confidence our customers have shown as we worked through this process. We thank all of our employees for their dedication during this time,” the airline said.

"This is only the beginning"

The Air Canada Component of CUPE issued a statement shortly after announcing the results, saying that even with the proposed increase, Air Canada flight attendants would still earn less than federal minimum wage, which is $17.75 per hour (or $2,840 per month) on a 40-hour workweek.

READ MORE: Air Canada updates goodwill policy, will reimburse for hotels & meals

By contrast, a full-time Rouge flight attendant would earn just $2,219 per month, and a full-time mainline flight attendant would earn only $2,522 per month, the union said.  

“Full-time workers at a flagship corporation and the national air carrier should not be earning less than minimum wage and qualifying for income supports,” the union stated.

CUPE says Air Canada offered a year-one increase of 12 per cent for Rouge flight attendants and mainline flight attendants with five-years service or less, and an increase of eight per cent for mainline flight attendants with six years or more.

The company also offered annual increases of 3 per cent, 2.5 per cent and 2.75 per cent in the remaining years of the proposed four-year contract.

“It is impossible to ignore the corrosive role the federal government played in these negotiations,” CUPE said. “Rather than maintaining their neutrality, the federal government kept their thumb on the scale throughout the bargaining process and gave Air Canada the leverage they needed to suppress flight attendants' wages.”

Wesley Lesosky, president of the Air Canada Component of CUPE, argues that Air Canada “never bargained in good faith on wages.”

“By CEO Michael Rousseau's own admission, the company expected the federal government to intervene and take away the only leverage we had – our right to go on strike,” Lesosky stated (referring to this interview by BNN Bloomberg). "Jobs Minister Patty Hajdu only waited 11 hours to prove the company right.”

CUPE says the “larger issue of recognizing the vital safety role of flight attendants and compensating them for that work remains unresolved.”

“Air Canada flight attendants were able to obtain partial pay for some of their ground duties in this round of bargaining, representing important progress in the fight to end unpaid work. This is only the beginning,” the union said.

Air Canada has fully resumed its operations after the high-profile strike – which started August 16, and lasted nearly four days – grounded its aircraft, disrupting the flights of some 500,000 customers.

The airline has also updated its goodwill policy to reimburse customers who incurred out-of-pocket expenses for hotels, meals and transportation during the labour action. Click here for details.

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