Air Canada delays plans to renew operations after flight attendants refuse to finish strike

Air Canada is delaying its plans to renew providers on Sunday after its 10,000 hanging flight attendants defied the Canadian authorities’s return-to-work order to stay on the picket traces.

The strike, which started on Saturday morning, stranded greater than 100,000 vacationers world wide throughout the peak summer season journey season. The Canada Industrial Relations Board ordered airline employees again to work by 2 p.m. Sunday after the Canadian authorities intervened and Air Canada mentioned it deliberate to renew flights Sunday night.

However, the Canadian Union of Public Employees, which represents the flight attendants, mentioned the demonstrations will hold going across the nation, regardless of the airline’s assertion.

“We invite Air Canada back to the table to negotiate a fair deal, rather than relying on the federal government to do their dirty work for them when bargaining gets a little bit tough,” the union mentioned. “We remain on strike. We demand a fair, negotiated contract and to be compensated for all hours worked.”

The airline mentioned in an announcement Sunday afternoon that it plans to renew flights on Monday night.

Fewer than 12 hours after employees walked off the job, Federal Jobs Minister Patty Hajdu ordered the ten,000 flight attendants again to work, saying now just isn’t the time to take dangers with the economic system and noting the unprecedented tariffs the U.S. has imposed on Canada. Hajdu referred the work stoppage to the Canada Industrial Relations Board.

The shutdown of Canada’s largest airline early Saturday was impacting about 130,000 folks a day. Air Canada operates round 700 flights per day.

According to numbers from aviation analytics supplier Cirium, Air Canada had canceled a complete of 671 flights by Saturday afternoon, following 199 on Friday. And one other 96 flights scheduled for Sunday have been already suspended.

The bitter contract battle escalated Friday because the union turned down Air Canada’s prior request to enter into government-directed arbitration, which permits a third-party mediator to resolve the phrases of a brand new contract.

Flight attendants walked off the job round 1 a.m. EDT on Saturday. Around the identical time, Air Canada mentioned it might start locking flight attendants out of airports.

Last 12 months, the federal government pressured the nation’s two main railroads into arbitration with their labor union throughout a piece stoppage. The union for the rail employees is suing, arguing the federal government is eradicating a union’s leverage in negotiations.

The Business Council of Canada had urged the federal government to impose binding arbitration on this case, too. And the Canadian Chamber of Commerce welcomed the intervention.

Hajdu maintained that her Liberal authorities just isn’t anti-union, saying it’s clear the 2 sides are at an deadlock.

Passengers whose flights are impacted will probably be eligible to request a full refund on the airline’s web site or cell app, in response to Air Canada.

The airline mentioned it might additionally provide different journey choices by different Canadian and international airways when doable. Still, it warned that it couldn’t assure fast rebooking as a result of flights on different airways are already full “due to the summer travel peak.”

Air Canada and the Canadian Union of Public Employees have been in contract talks for about eight months, however they’ve but to succeed in a tentative deal.

Both sides have mentioned they continue to be far aside on the difficulty of pay and the unpaid work flight attendants do when planes aren’t within the air.

The airline’s newest provide included a 38% enhance in complete compensation, together with advantages and pensions, over 4 years, that it mentioned “would have made our flight attendants the best compensated in Canada.”

But the union pushed again, saying the proposed 8% elevate within the first 12 months did not go far sufficient due to inflation.