Air Canada pilots have voted in favour of a strike if the airline can’t reach a deal with the union, a move that could ground planes and disrupt travel plans for Canadians across the country.
The results released Thursday show 98 per cent of Air Canada pilots represented by the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA) took part in the vote and of those participating members, 98 per cent voted in favour of striking.
“Air Canada pilots sent an overwhelming message that they are resolved and unified and willing to do what it takes to get the contract that they have earned,” Charlene Hudy, chair of the Air Canada ALPA Master Executive Council, told Global News in an interview Thursday.
Hudy declined to give a specific date for when a job action could begin, telling Global News the union and airline are still at the bargaining table in a 60-day federal conciliation process.
When that ends on Aug. 26, a 21-day cooling-off period will begin, after which pilots will be in a legal position to walk off the job in mid-September if the parties haven’t agreed to a new deal by then.
Air Canada put out a statement acknowledging the vote, calling it a “normal step in the negotiation process.” The airline said the vote does not mean any disruption will necessarily take place and reiterated that no action can happen before the current conciliation process ends.
“Air Canada remains committed to the bargaining process and will continue to work towards a fair and equitable collective agreement with ALPA that recognizes the contributions of our pilots and supports the competitiveness and long-term growth of our company,” the statement read.
Pilots are seeking improved pay rates, retirement benefits and other quality-of-life improvements in the new deal.
ALPA served notice for negotiations in June 2023, with talks held between the parties from January to June of this year until reaching an impasse.
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While Hudy says the union has seen “progress” in negotiations with the airline to date, she says Air Canada needs to bring pilot wages closer to an industry standard. Pilots are currently flying on the back of a deal inked in 2014, with some provisions dating back decades, Hudy says.
“We really need Air Canada to show up and close that wage gap between ourselves and our industry counterparts,” she says.
Global News reached Duncan Dee, former chief operating officer at Air Canada, at the airport before catching a flight on Thursday.
He says there’s no question pilots at the Canadian flagbearer are owed a pay bump, adding he believes ALPA will be able to secure a deal that puts Air Canada pilots “at the top of the Canadian airline industry.”
But Dee says the union may reach a sticking point if it pushes for pay hikes on par with pilots in the United States, where he says the compensation packages are structured differently and therefore not necessarily an “apples-to-apples comparison.”
U.S. carriers including Delta, United and American Airlines ratified new deals last year that would see pilot pay rise up to 40 per cent over four years.
The negotiations at Air Canada follow a strike at Canada’s other major airline, WestJet, where the mechanics’ union went on strike in July over the Canada Day weekend. The strike disrupted the travel plans of more than 100,000 people.
But Dee notes that full-blown strikes among an airline’s pilots are rare in Canada.
WestJet pilots represented by ALPA nearly took to the picket lines over the Victoria Day long weekend in 2023 until reaching a deal at the last minute. WestJet still ended up cancelling flights in anticipation of a work stoppage, disrupting plans for many Canadians ahead of the busy travel weekend.
WestJet also avoided a work stoppage among pilots for its Encore division earlier this year, reaching a deal within the 72-hour notice period before a lockout or strike could begin.
This recent precedence bodes well for skirting a strike this fall, Dee says, as ALPA can use the WestJet negotiations as a “template” for Air Canada pilots.
Citing past experience in airline labour disputes, Dee says he expects the most intense round of negotiations to start in the 21-day cooling-off period ahead of a possible strike.
“I think that the million-dollar question is whether Air Canada can meet the demands and the expectations of its pilots and whether pilots are willing to, in effect, shut the company down over their wage demands,” he says.
Barry Prentice, director of the transport institute at the University of Manitoba’s Asper School of Business, told Global News ahead of the strike vote that in the case of Air Canada, he expects the airline to agree to the union’s demands.
“For the airline to shut down and not have pilots is not an option. So, maybe they will bite the bullet and they will agree to it,” Prentice said.
He said pilots tend to have more negotiations compared with other airline employees in collective bargaining agreements.
“If we look at the pattern in the U.S., (wage settlements) are pretty substantial,” he said, adding that Canada’s pilot shortage is likely to further swing the negotiations in their favour.
“They’ve got a lot of leverage. Will it end up going to a strike? Hard to say.”
Hudy says Air Canada pilots take their responsibility to shepherd Canadians across the country and overseas “very seriously,” adding this isn’t a position ALPA wants to be in.
But she argues that Air Canada must show it is ready to invest in its pilot group for the sake of stability in Canada’s airline industry after a turbulent few years in the pandemic recovery.
“You can’t have a country this large without a sustainable aviation network. So this is important for everybody.”
— with files from The Associated Press
© 2024 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
