Air Canada’s flight attendants overwhelmingly rejected a proposed contract worked out by their employer and their labor union last month after a three-day strike that grounded flights across Canada.
In a statement, the Canadian Union of Public Employees, which represents the flight attendants, said its members voted 99.1% against the contract offer in a vote that ended on Saturday.
But the roughly 10,000 flight attendants at Air Canada and low-cost subsidiary Air Canada Rouge will not be returning to the picket lines. Air Canada and CUPE confirmed over the weekend that they had reached an agreement to avoid another work stoppage and will refer the matter to mediation and, if that fails, arbitration.
“Air Canada is fully committed to the mediation and arbitration process,” the airline said in a statement. “The negotiations period has been challenging for all Air Canada stakeholders. We deeply appreciate the patience and the confidence our customers have shown as we worked through this process.”
CUPE described the tentative labor agreement as “transformational” upon its announcement, but said Saturday that its proposed wage increases would still not boost flight attendants above the federal minimum wage when hours of unpaid work are factored in. Air Canada’s flight attendants are paid only for work done while an airplane’s doors are closed, not for tasks like helping passengers board or carrying out safety checks.
The contract put forward last month would have partially compensated flight attendants for those responsibilities. It provided year-one wage increases of 12% for mainline and Rouge flight attendants with five years of service or less and 8% for those with six years or more, and subsequent annual increases of 3%, 2.5% and 2.75%.
CUPE said Saturday that those concessions were not enough, and that “this is only the beginning.”
Back to the Bargaining Table
The flight attendants walked off the job on Aug. 16, forcing Air Canada to cancel all mainline and Rouge flights. The shutdown affected about 500,000 people traveling to, from, and within Canada.
Federal Jobs Minister Patty Hajdu and the Canadian Industrial Relations Board issued a return-to-work order, citing the economic toll of a prolonged work stoppage, but the flight attendants ignored it. They also brushed off an Aug. 18 ruling declaring their strike illegal, and CUPE leaders said they were willing to face jail time to advance their members’ demands.
One day later, though, the two sides announced a tentative agreement, and the flight attendants returned to work. This is the deal that was voted down over the weekend.
CUPE officials said Saturday that the federal government played a “corrosive role” in the negotiations by undermining the workers’ position.
“Air Canada never bargained in good faith on wages,” said Wesley Lesosky, president of the Air Canada component of CUPE. “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. Jobs Minister Patty Hajdu only waited 11 hours to prove the company right.”
It was not immediately clear when mediation between Air Canada and CUPE would begin, or who would serve in the role of mediator.
