On Tuesday, the union that represents 10,000 flight attendants at Air Canada announced that it had called a strike, which is set to begin on August 16. Within hours, the airline retaliated by suspending staff travel privileges with immediate effect.
Air Canada tried to reason that the decision to stop staffers from traveling on deeply discounted tickets wasn’t to punish flight attendants for going on strike, but rather to protect seats on board available flights as the airline prepares to shut down on Saturday.
That might seem like a reasonable explanation if it were not for the fact that these discounted travel benefits only work when there are spare seats on board in the first place – in short, commercial passengers come first.
Then there were all the other knock-on effects that this sudden and wide sweeping policy had. For example:
- Many flight attendants rely on standby tickets to ‘commute’ to work – with the suspension, crew members were blocked from traveling to work before the strike even got underway.
- Staff passengers who were overseas at the time of the suspension were effectively stranded in a foreign country with no support from the airline to repatriate them back to Canada.
- This even applied to Air Canada employees who had been sent overseas on business trips, blocking them from returning home.
It took a few hours for Air Canada to realize the unintended consequences of its policy before issuing a few crucial changes. For example, commuting flight attendants are still allowed to use their benefits to travel to work, while staffers attempting to return home from overseas will still be allowed to do so.
The current restrictions, or embargo as it is known within the aviation industry, are in place until August 23, although that could be extended depending on how long the strike continues.
The CUPE union filed its strike notice in the early hours of Wednesday morning after Air Canada declared an impasse in new contract negotiations. The union must provide 72 hours’ notice before a strike gets underway, which is why the stoppage won’t officially start until Saturday.
Running up to that date, however, Air Canada says it is slowly winding down its business operations, ensuring that airplanes are positioned in the correct locations before the strike gets underway.
This might seem like an overreaction given that many other airlines that have faced flight attendant strikes in recent years have been able to continue operating, even with some cancellations and delays.
The difference, however, is that Air Canada is not allowed to get substitute workers to take on the role of flight attendants. The airline simply can’t put office workers and other strike breakers through a crash flight attendant course to keep its business operating.
At the same time, a complete shutdown serves two purposes for Air Canada. The airline has already issued a lockout notice to flight attendants, meaning it can stop paying all of them. This has the effect of piling pressure on the union to reach a deal as quickly as possible.
In addition, Air Canada can argue to the Canadian government and the public that the strike is going to cause travel chaos. What is implied here is that the government should intervene and force the flight attendant to accept binding arbitration… So far, Ottawa hasn’t decided to get too involved in this dispute, although there is still time.
For its part, the CUPE union says it is ready and willing to return to the bargaining table, although Air Canada is yet to accept its offer of further negotiations.
In its latest update to the media, Air Canada said flight cancellations would begin on August 14, with more to follow on August 15. There will then be a “complete cessation of flying” by Air Canada and Air Canada Rouge on August 16.
