Air Canada suspends operations as on -board agents go on strike

Toronto – Air Canada has suspended all operations while more than 10,000 Air Canada on -board agents went on strike early Saturday after a deadline to conclude a agreement, leaving travelers around the world stranded and rushing during the first season of summer trips.

The spokesperson for the Canadian Public Employees, Hugh Pouliot confirmed that the strike had started after the conclusion that no agreement was concluded, and the airline said shortly after it stopped operations.

A fight against a bitter contract between the largest airline in Canada and the union representing 10,000 of its on -board agents intensified on Friday while the union refused the airline’s request to conclude an arbitration led by the government, which would eliminate its right to strike and allow a third -party mediator to decide on the terms of a new contract.

The on -board agents left the post around 1 a.m. on the HA on Saturday. Around the same time, Air Canada said that it would start to lock the airports on -board agents.

Federal Minister of Jobs, Patty Hajdu, met both the airline and the union on Friday evening and urged them to work harder to conclude a “once and for all” agreement.

“It is unacceptable that such little progress has been made. Canadians are counting on both parties to deploy their best efforts,” said Hajdu in a statement published on social networks.

Pouliot, the Union spokesman, said the union earlier that the union had a meeting with Hajdu and Air Canada representatives earlier Friday evening.

“CUPE is committed to the mediator to relay our desire to continue to negotiate-despite the fact that Air Canada has not countered our last two offers since Tuesday,” he said in an email. “We are here to negotiate an agreement, not to continue on strike.”

A full closure will have an impact on around 130,000 people a day, and some 25,000 Canadians per day could be blocked abroad. Air Canada operates around 700 flights per day.

The Montreal resident, Alex Laroche, 21, and his girlfriend have saved since Christmas for their European holidays. Now, their $ 8,000 trip with non -refundable accommodation is at stake while they are waiting to hear Air Canada on the fate of their flight on Saturday evening to Nice, France.

The duration of the airline’s planes will be on the ground, but the chief of the Air Canada operation, Mark Nasr, said that he could take up to a week to fully restart operations once a provisional agreement is concluded.

Passengers whose trips are affected will be eligible to request a full refund on the website or mobile application of the airline, according to Air Canada.

The airline said it would also offer alternative travel options through other Canadian and foreign airlines when possible. But he warned that this could not guarantee immediate rehutation because thefts on other airlines are already complete “due to the peak of summer travel”.

Laroche said he was planning to reserve new flights with a different carrier, but he said most of them were almost full and cost more than the $ 3,000 they paid for their original tickets.

“At this point, it’s just a waiting game,” he said.

Laroche said that he was initially upset by the union’s decision to strike, but that he had a change of heart after reading the main problems at the center of contractual negotiations, including the issue of wages.

“Their salary is barely habitable,” said Laroche.

Air Canada and the Canadian Public employees union have been in contractual talks for about eight months, but they have not yet concluded a provisional agreement.

The two parties say that they remain distant on the issue of remuneration and that unpaid on -board agents do it when the planes are not in the air.

The airline’s latest offer included a 38% increase in total remuneration, including benefits and four -year pensions, which said: “The best compensated on -board in Canada would have made.”

But the union postponed, saying that the 8% increase in the first year did not go far enough because of inflation. ___

The writer of Associated Press Airlines, Rio Yamat, reported in Las Vegas.