Canadian government intervenes to avert Air Canada strike affecting over 100,000 travellers

Canada’s government forced Air Canada and its striking flight attendants back to work and into arbitration Saturday, after a work stoppage stranded more than 100,000 travellers around the world during the peak summer travel season.

Federal Jobs Minister Patty Hajdu said now is not the time to take risks with the economy while announcing the intervention. It means the 10,000 flight attendants are set to return to work.

"The talks broke down. It is clear that the parties are not any closer to resolving some of the key issues that remain and they will need help with the arbitrator,” Hajdu said.

Hajdu said the full resumption of services could take days, noting it is up to the Canada Industrial Relations Board.

The shutdown of Canada’s largest airline early Saturday is impacting about 130,000 people a day, and some 25,000 Canadians may be stranded. Air Canada operates around 700 flights per day.

The bitter contract fight between the airline and the union representing 10,000 of its flight attendants escalated Friday as the union turned down the airline’s request to enter into government-directed arbitration, which would eliminate its right to strike and allow a third-party mediator to decide the terms of a new contract.

Sides are far apart on pay

21-year-old traveller Alex Laroche whose trip to Europe is in doubt said he considered booking new flights with a different carrier, but he said most of them are nearly full and cost more than double the $3,000 he paid for the original tickets.

Laroche said he was initially upset over the union’s decision to go on strike, but that he had a change of heart after reading about the key issues at the centre of the contract negotiations, including the issue of wages.

“Their wage is barely livable,” Laroche said.

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

Both sides say they remain far apart on the issue of pay and the unpaid work flight attendants do when planes aren’t in the air.

“We are heartbroken for our passengers. Nobody wants to see Canadians stranded or anxious about their travel plans but we cannot work for free," said Natasha Stea, an Air Canada flight attendant and local union president.

The attendants are about 70% women. Stea said Air Canada pilots, who are male dominated, received a significant raise last year and questioned whether they are getting fair treatment.

The airline’s latest offer included a 38% increase in total compensation, including benefits and pensions over four years, that it said “would have made our flight attendants the best compensated in Canada.”

But the union pushed back, saying the proposed 8% raise in the first year didn’t go far enough because of inflation.