The union that represents the Air Canada hostesses says that there are no scheduled conversations with the airline, since a strike that began early Saturday morning led to the suspension operations of the airline.
The union and the airline met on Friday night before 10,000 hostesses left work at 12:58 am et, Wesley Lesosky, president of the Air Canada component of the Union of Canadian public employees (CUPE), said at a morning press conference.
Lesosky said his last meeting was Friday night, but Air Canada offered “no substance” to bring the members.
When asked when Canadians could expect to return to flights, Lesosky said it depends on Air Canada, but that public pressure on the airline will make a “big difference” to reach an agreement.
CBC News has communicated with Air Canada to comment and will update this story with any answer.
The Minister of Jobs, Patty Hajdu, also met with the airline and the Union on Friday night. She gave an early update on Saturday afternoon that CBC wore live. This story is being updated with your comments.
“It is unacceptable that so few progress have been made. Canadians have both parties to present their best efforts,” Hajdu said on the X Social Network Platform.
See my statement on the last development between the Cupe Hostesses on Air Canada and Air Canada:
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Voici Ma Declare Sur Les Derniers Leadlves between Les Agents of Bord du scfp d’Araded Canada et Air Canada: pic.twitter.com/vytufthygg
Picket lines configured in Canada
All Air Canada and Air Canada Rouge flights are suspended for now. Around 130,000 clients will be affected every day the strike continues, said the airline.
Air Canada Express flights, operated by Third Jazz and Pal, are not affected.
- The Cross Country check asks: How has the Air Canada strike affected you? What should be done about it? Leave your comment here and we can read it or call it for our program on Sunday.
“Air Canada deeply laments the effect that the strike is having on customers,” said Saturday morning.
CUPE has established picket lines at the airports throughout Canada, even in Montreal, Toronto, Calgary and Vancouver. A surprising flight attendees also plan pickets at airports in Halifax, Ottawa and Winnipeg.
Meanwhile, passengers around the world are feeling the effects of the strike of flight attendees.
Keelin Pringnitz and his family are from Ottawa and returned from a European vacation, but they were stranded after the flights were canceled.
“It was an end of my maternity leave trip. We went to the Faroe and Norway Islands, traveling through Air Canada to London,” Pringnitz said from the London Heathrow airport.
He pointed out that there was an option for travelers to go to the United States, but others were already told that there would be no more help once they landed in the United States.
“It was not good with the line. Nobody really seemed interested, everyone seemed a bit fun almost by suggestion, or exasperated, because it is a bit ridiculous to offer to take passengers stranded to a different country to place them there.”
For customers who must travel soon, whose flights have not yet been canceled, Air Canada said that it will allow them to reserve their trip or get a loan for future trips.
Sides at a dead point of payment
Air Canada and Cupe have been in contract conversations for about eight months, but they have not yet reached an tentative agreement.
Both parties say they remain very separate in the issue of payment and unpaid work hostesses when the airplanes are not in the air.
More than 10,000 Air Canada flight attendees were strike on Saturday morning, after the airline and the union that represent them failed to reach an agreement before the deadline. With a work strike now in force, Air Canada estimates that 130,000 clients will be affected every day of a strike, a figure that includes 25,000 Canadian travelers who are abroad.
The last offer of the airline included a 38 percent increase in total compensation, including benefits and pensions for four years, which said “would have made our hostesses the best compensated in Canada.”
But the union retreated, saying that the 8 percent increase proposed in the first year was not far enough due to inflation.
Government intervention
Air Canada previously requested Hajdu to intervene ordering the parties that enter a binding arbitration process, a power granted to the minister through Sec. 107 of the Canada Labor Code.
On Friday, Hajdu urged Air Canada and the union to return to the negotiating table, which suggests that it is not ready to intervene. The minister said the union has indicated that many of his demands have been fulfilled, which suggests that there is a path to an agreement.
The largest airline in Canada is now based mostly after a strike deadline for more than 10,000 Air Canada flight attendees passed. Hundreds of flights have been canceled, impacting more than 100,000 travelers and leaving some stranded.
Hajdu had asked the union to respond to the company’s request. Cupe indicated on Friday that he opposed arbitration, instead of maintaining his desire to solve the point of the dead through negotiation.
