Air Canada resumes flying after flight attendants’ strike ends

Open this photo in gallery:

Air Canada AC-T resumed flying Tuesday afternoon after reaching an early morning tentative labour agreement with the union that represents its 10,000 flight attendants, who had been on strike since Aug. 16.

The four-year deal, which must be approved by a majority of union members in coming votes, provides hourly raises of about 16 to 20 per cent over the life of the contract, depending on seniority and job type, according to people familiar with the matter.

The Globe and Mail is not identifying them because they were not authorized to speak about the deal.

Flight attendants will also be paid a share of their hourly wage for pre- and post-flight work, which was previously unpaid and a key issue for union members. The ground work pay starts at 50 per cent of the hourly rate in the first year and rises to 70 per cent by the fourth.

Air Canada and CUPE officials declined to provide details or confirm the hourly pay rates.

The tentative deal was announced after the two sides returned to the negotiating table on Monday night with the aid of William Kaplan, a respected mediator. It ended a labour disruption that not only threatened Air Canada’s bottom line, but also stranded passengers around the world and challenged Ottawa’s authority to order striking workers back to their jobs.

A return to normal operations will take a week to 10 days.

Mark Nasr, Air Canada’s chief operating officer, said the agreement will make the flight attendants the best paid in Canada, with “industry-leading” pay for ground work.

“We were committed at the outset to providing Canadian industry-leading compensation for our flight attendants,” Mr. Nasr said in an interview. “The deal does exactly that.”

Cabin crews walked off the job early Saturday morning, grounding Canada’s largest airline, cancelling about 700 flights a day.

The same day the strike began, Patty Hajdu, Minister of Jobs and Families, used Section 107 of the Canada Labour Code to direct the Canadian Industrial Relations Board to order the cabin crews to return to work and have the agreement decided by an arbitrator. At the same time, she said, “The best agreements are the ones made at the table.”

The union said Ms. Hajdu’s order was a violation of the right to strike, and refused to return to work. CUPE launched a battle in the Federal Court of Canada seeking a declaration the minister’s order breached its rights.

Opinion: Air Canada, the airline oligopoly and the abused consumer

On Monday, the CIRB declared the strike illegal and issued another order to end it. This, too, was defied by the union. Mark Hancock, CUPE national president, said on Monday he was ready to go to jail to defend workers’ rights.

Mr. Hancock said on Tuesday the decision to defy the federal orders and stay on the picket line was a tough one for the flight attendants, many of whom are young.

“I mean, we’re Canadians, we’re nice people generally,” he said by phone. “It’s not my first rodeo, but for our members, the flight attendants, so many young people, so many new employees and even those employees that have been around for a while, it’s hard because you’re not used to taking that type of bold hard action.”

Although the union has called off the strike, he said CUPE will continue the court battle against the minister’s use of her power to order an end to the job action.

“We all want to make sure that 107 is never used again in the future,” Mr. Hancock said.

Mr. Nasr said 15 to 20 per cent of Air Canada’s 700 daily flights were to restart beginning at 4 p.m. ET Tuesday on the main airline and discount carrier Rouge.

“Because we were shut down for so long, it makes the restart incrementally more difficult,” Mr. Nasr said.

Andrew Coyne: How did Air Canada lose hearts and minds? Two words: ‘unpaid work’

“There’s several thousands of passengers that are abroad, and we’re fully focused on getting them home.”

Air Canada flies about 250 planes to more than 200 destinations. Most of its fleet was returned to domestic airports in recent days, and must undergo engine and safety checks before flying.

Mr. Nasr used the example of a flight to Sydney, Australia, from Vancouver, which takes 17 hours and leaves Tuesday night.

Because of the strike, there are no crews for a return flight in Sydney, so the one crew has to rest there for 24 hours before it can fly back to Vancouver. This amounts to a three-day process, one that has to be repeated for much of the airline’s network.

Aviation data company Cirium said more than 3,000 Air Canada flights were cancelled in the labour dispute, including routes that were scrubbed in the days leading up to the strike.

Bargaining began about eight months ago to replace a labour agreement that had been in place for 10 years.

The union was seeking pay increases amid the inflation crisis. Workers also demanded to be paid for pre-flight duties. Cabin crews were not paid until the plane door was closed, a common industry practice.

“Unpaid work is over,” CUPE said in a statement on Tuesday.

Air Canada said senior employees would make an average of $87,000 a year.

Under the lapsed contract, Air Canada’s flight attendants were paid about $33 an hour in their first year. Rouge cabin crews started at about $26 an hour.

Air Canada’s pilots last year approved a contract that provides 42-per-cent raises over four years.

With a report from Vanmala Subramaniam