Air Canada is aiming to resume services on 18 August, after striking cabin crew thwarted the carrier’s plans to reinstate operations sooner.
The airline had already suspended over 700 flights when the federal government intervened on 17 August to refer contract negotiations with the CUPE union to arbitration.
Air Canada had claimed that this directive from federal jobs minister Patty Hajdu ended the strike, which had begun a day earlier, with the Canadian Industrial Relations Board instructing all cabin crew to resume duties.
The board also ordered that the collective agreement between the airline and CUPE – which had expired at the end of March – be extended until a new pact was in place.
But CUPE, which had urged Hajdu not to intervene in the situation, has defied the order to return to work.
It has accused the government of violating cabin crew members’ rights to job action while giving Air Canada “exactly what they want – hours and hours of unpaid labour from underpaid flight attendants”.
Air Canada accuses the union of acting “illegally” by encouraging cabin crew to ignore the industrial relations board directive.
It says this forced the cancellation of around 240 flight scheduled to operate on 17 August, and that services will instead resume on 18 August.
The board has imposed final binding arbitration to resolve outstanding terms of the collective agreement. Air Canada says the arbitration procedure will be addressed “in the coming days and weeks”.
While Air Canada plans to resume operations, it says aircraft are out of position and the schedule is likely to take seven to 10 days to stabilise – probably resulting in a number of flight cancellations.
