Following talks and negotiations between Air Canada and the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) that ended in an impasse earlier this week, Air Canada flight attendants have officially gone on strike as of Saturday morning after a 72 hour notice.
The current situation looks brutal for all of those involved. According to FlightAware, a total of 534 Air Canada and 129 Air Canada Rouge flights have been cancelled so far today.
The airline is urging passengers not to go to the airport unless they have a confirmed booking on another airline. Over 30% of flights out of Toronto, and 29% of flights out of Montreal have been cancelled so far today. These high amounts of cancellations can cause mayhem at airports if everybody shows up.
Note that Air Canada flights operated by Jazz Aviation and PAL Airlines are still operating, as they are not a part of this strike.
Air Canada states that it provided for a 38% total compensation increase over the next four years in its latest offer, while addressing ground pay, crew rest, and more. Meanwhile, CUPE claims that the offer would still “…leave flight attendants living below poverty levels for many years to come,” adding that the wages do not keep up with inflation and are below market value.
“Air Canada has been negotiating with CUPE for eight months and although we have settled many items, none of which required concessions, we remain far apart on key issues. We are disappointed our proposal to resolve the outstanding items fairly through arbitration has been rejected by the union and it is instead insisting on unsustainable wage increases,” said Arielle Meloul-Wechsler, Executive Vice President at Air Canada, back on Tuesday.
Featured image by the author.
