Air Canada will not restart Sunday as flight attendants strike

TORONTO — Air Canada mentioned it suspended plans to restart operations on Sunday after the union representing 10,000 flight attendants mentioned it can defy a return to work order.

The Canada Industrial Relations Board ordered airline employees again to work by 2 p.m. Sunday after the federal government intervened and Air Canada mentioned it deliberate to renew flights Sunday night.

Canada’s largest airline now says it can resume flights Monday night.

“Our members are not going back to work,” Canadian Union of Public Employees nationwide president Mark Hancock mentioned earlier Sunday exterior Toronto’s Pearson International Airport. “We are saying no.”

Hancock mentioned the “entire course of has been unfair” and mentioned the union will problem what it referred to as an unconstitutional order.

“Air Canada has really refused to bargain with us and they refused to bargain with us because they knew this government would come in on their white horse and try and save the day,” he mentioned.

The federal authorities did not instantly present touch upon the union refusing to return to work.

The nation’s largest airline had mentioned early Sunday in a launch that the primary flights would resume later within the day however that it’ll take a number of days earlier than its operations return to regular. It mentioned some flights can be canceled over the following seven to 10 days till the schedule is stabilized.

Less than 12 hours after staff walked off the job, Federal Jobs Minister Patty Hajdu ordered the 10,000 flight attendants again to work, saying now will not be 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 airline mentioned the Canada Industrial Relations Board has prolonged the time period of the prevailing collective settlement till a brand new one is set by the arbitrator.

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

According to numbers from aviation analytics supplier Cirium, Air Canada canceled a complete of 494 flights on Sunday morning. That’s along with the lots of of flights it canceled within the earlier days.

The bitter contract struggle 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 could start locking flight attendants out of airports.

Last 12 months, the federal government forced the country’s two major railroads into arbitration with their labor union throughout a piece stoppage. The union for the rail staff 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 will not be anti-union, saying it’s clear the 2 sides are at an deadlock.

Passengers whose flights are impacted can 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 could additionally provide various journey choices by way of different Canadian and overseas 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 CUPE have been in contract talks for about eight months, however they’ve but to achieve 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 whole 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% increase within the first 12 months didn’t go far sufficient due to inflation.