Air Canada is faced with its first major strike in nearly 13 years after the country’s largest carrier failed to reach a new labour pact with 3,800 of its sales and service agents by their strike deadline midnight Monday.
Ken Lewenza, the national president of the Canadian Auto Workers, which represents the striking workers, said he was disappointed a deal could not be reached after some progress during the course of the day Monday.
But he said ultimately management remained steadfast in wrestling concessions from the membership related to their pensions, which he said was a “non-starter” for union’ s bargaining committee.
“It’s disappointing for us. It’s disappointing for the traveling public. But it was something we had to do,” Mr. Lewenza said in an interview early Tuesday morning.
He said the CAW’s leadership remains open to a “fair and reasonable” deal if the pension concessions come off the table, and that he was available “seven days a week, 24 hours a day” if management wants to talk.
In the meantime, Air Canada has said it plans to keep a full-schedule throughout the strike with non-unionized workers and more than 1,700 managers filling in for the striking workers at airports and call centres across the country.
But it has warned customers to expect long line-ups, and is urging them to minimize the amount of checked bags they have and to check-in online before heading to the airport.
“We are very disappointed that an agreement for a new contract has not been reached prior to the CAW’s strike deadline and we remain ready to resume discussions at any time to achieve a negotiated settlement,” said Duncan Dee, Air Canada chief operating officer in a statement.
“We will continue to operate our full schedule and all bookings will be honored. We regret the inconvenience this situation may cause passengers,” he added.
Staff will be on hand at airports to help with self-serve check-ins and baggage tagging as the airline heads into the busy summer season, he said.
Air Canada has also urged passengers to monitor the situation through updates on its website because of anticipated longer-than-expected delays at call centres too.
Air Canada’s operations are expected to be impacted at nine major airports across the country, including St. John’s, Halifax, Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, Winnipeg, Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver.
Talks came to a standstill over a series of pension concession management was seeking from the membership.
The airline currently has a $2.1-billion pension solvency deficit, and was seeking to reduce the CAW’s portion of that liability by $244-million, union officials said.
Management had proposed to increase the minimum retirement age by five years, change the funding formula, and other measures to help achieve that goal. But those proposals came up against stiff opposition from the union’s leadership.
The airline argues the pension changes are needed. Even though Air Canada managed to negotiate fixed rates of pension payments through to the end of 2013, those payments are set to swell to $550-million in 2014 based on current estimates, management has said.
The CAW members have been working without a contract since Feb. 28.
It remains to be seen how long Ottawa will allow the strike to continue before back-to-work legislation is drafted.
Federal Labour Minister Lisa Raitt did express her concerns over the weekend about what sort of impact a strike at the airline would have on the broader economy.A spokeswoman for the minister said Monday Ms. Raitt’s preferred avenue would be for the parties to reach a deal by themselves. But she would weigh her options Tuesday in the event of a strike.
Meanwhile, WestJet Airlines Ltd. has been increasing staffing at its own call centres since Friday in anticipation of higher passenger volumes, said Richard Bartrem, a spokesman for the airline.
The Calgary-based carrier is also prepared to increase the frequencies of its flights on popular routes if needed, he said. Mr. Bartrem said the airline began seeing above average booking levels Sunday as the threat of a strike at Air Canada loomed larger.
The strike is the first for Air Canada since its pilots walked off the job in 1998. Although, it did face a brief wild cat strike in 2005 by ground crew workers that lasted for four hours. Air Canada must also renegotiate its labour contracts with its other employee groups this year.
The Air Canada Pilots Association will meet for the first time this week after recalling several of the union’s leadership after a new tentative agreement was sent out for ratification that included, among other things, changes that would see new hires moved into a defined contribution pension plan and support for a new low-cost carrier to be launched with different wages and benefits for those employees.
The union representing the mechanics and ground crew, as well as its flights attendants’ union, continue their negotiations with the airline.
scdeveau@nationalpost.com
