Air Canada and Union Reach Tentative Agreement

Air Canada flight attendants were victorious in their strike

At around 4.23am Eastern time this morning, the union representing 10,000 flight attendants and Air Canada came to a tentative agreement, where the former get paid for at least 60 minutes when they are working on the ground, and a pay raise.

"Unpaid work is over. We have reclaimed our voice and our power," the union said in a statement.

Union and management have tentative agreement

Getting paid for the work flight attendants do before the plane leaves the gate is a massive breakthrough for the flight attendants, who have been fighting for this for months, and could set the industry standard globally. While there are a few smaller airlines who do pay their flight attendants for ground work, Air Canada is one of the first major international airlines to do so.

Although the union has yet to ratify the deal, the union advised its members to "fully co-operate with resumption of operations."

As a result, some flights resumed at around 4pm EST, though it will take international flights several days to restart. 

It's a massive victory for the flight attendants, who were defying the work-to-order and were even willing to go to jail for their disobedience. They stood their ground and waged a cohesive campaign across the country.

Nasr claimed ground pay was in the deal earlier

Meanwhile management were publicly perceived in a bad light and saw how angry passengers were for causing the disruptions and blamed it on them and not the flight attendants. That probably caused management to want to resolve the strike quickly.

But it didn't have to be this way! If management claimed they were willing to pay for ground pay all along, then why not say so?

"[Ground pay] absolutely should be in there, and we're so happy that we finally reached this industry-leading deal that allows our flight attendants to be compensated for the important work... that they perform on the ground," said Air Canada executive vice-president Mark Nasr.

He claimed ground pay had been part of the airline's proposed deal for workers for months...

Turbulent Times with Air Canada Strike

Flight attendants want to be paid for ground services

The Air Canada strike was barely 12 hours old when the Canadian government shut it down. Flight attendants with the nation's largest airline are fighting to be paid for all the work they do on the ground before the plane pushes off from the gate.

It's an issue they have repeated all over the media, gaining a lot of sympathy from the public, though others are annoyed the strike has severely impacted their travel plans, including my brother and nephew. 

They were supposed to fly on AC Saturday, but earlier this week I warned him about the impending strike and he made a backup plan to fly on American Airlines.

Air Canada turned to government for intervention

However, this morning when they arrived at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York, the flight was cancelled. He literally scrambled to get another flight leaving nine hours later to Seattle, and a train ticket to Vancouver. It was the cheaper option than to shell out around US$4,000 for two tickets on an alternative airline.

The plane left late, but managed to cut its flight time thanks to tail wind and it looked promising for him and my nephew to arrive with enough time to get to the train station.

But alas -- the bridge to connect to the plane in order to de-plane was broken! It took over an hour for the plane to be towed to another gate, and so they did not make the last Amtrak train at 9pm.

This afternoon CBC Radio's national call-in show Cross Country Checkup asked people how the Air Canada strike was affecting them. People phoned in from Dublin and Brazil to say they were stranded there, while others were upset their loved ones would not be able to make their wedding in a few days, or that the bride wouldn't make it on time, a father said he was traveling through Texas to get to his son in another part of Canada who was having cancer treatment.

A flight attendant disrupts an AC press conference

Others complained they tried to get through to Air Canada many times on the phone and got no where, and one person said the phone message told people to go to the website, while the website instructed people to call.

Despite the headaches and stress, most of the callers supported the flight attendants.

At the same time academics who study labour or airlines said Air Canada should have bargained in good faith with the flight attendants, that they should not have turned to the government to invoke Section 107 of the Canada Labour Code, forcing the flight attendants back to work and binding arbitration. 

Experts also blamed the government for siding with management so quickly.

"It really is a troubling development," said Barry Eidlin, who studies labour and social movements at McGill University.

"Section 107 basically just allows the labour minister this unilateral power to intervene to order workers back to work against their will. Ant that is extremely concerning."

In retaliation to the government forcing them to go back to work, the flight attendants are refusing to do so and are continuing their strike.

So while Air Canada says it will get flights up and running by Monday evening, that probably won't be happening. It's just creating bad blood between the flight attendants and Air Canada, with the passengers held hostage during one of the busiest travel periods of the year.