Air Transat pilots are represented by the same union as Air Canada pilots and expect similar compensation.Andrej Ivanov/The Globe and Mail
Steven Tufts is an associate professor in the faculty of environmental and urban change at York University.
There has been turbulence in the airline sector with the Air Transat TRZ-T labour dispute. Over the weekend, pilots issued a strike notice for early Wednesday morning. However the matter gets resolved, the damage has been done. Passengers were rightly panicked at the prospect of holiday travel plans being disrupted or even being stranded. It’s the second major disruption to air travel in Canada in the past six months, following Air Canada’s flight attendant strike in August. How did we get here and, more importantly, how do we get things back on course?
The causes of these tense rounds of negotiation are partially self-inflicted. Air Transat and the Air Line Pilots Association, or ALPA, negotiated a 10-year agreement that expired this year. ALPA also represents pilots at Air Canada, where a strike was barely averted in 2024 as they too had to negotiate a new agreement after a decade. Air Canada’s dispute with its flight attendants also followed a 10-year deal. Long-term deals are rare for a reason. They provide stability for employers, but conditions can change wildly over a decade (unforeseen pandemics, as one example) and there is so much to renegotiate that bargaining without the threat of a serious labour dispute is difficult.
As well, negotiations with Air Canada set the pattern for the sector. Pilots at Air Transat, represented by the same union as Air Canada pilots, expect compensation to be in the same ballpark. The size and type of operations at Canada’s airlines can differ, a primary role unions play is to narrow the wage gaps between workers in a sector so that one employer does not have a cost advantage over another. Similarly, CUPE, which represents flight attendants, will take the deal they reached with Air Canada to WestJet and Air Transat in upcoming months.
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All the while, the government has loomed large in labour disputes in the airline sector as employers relied on back-to-work orders or legislation. If employers know that a strike will be ended quickly, why bother to negotiate? Instead, employers are simply willing to roll the dice and let the strike notices come.
If less chaotic labour relations are desired in the air travel sector, these conditions need to be addressed. Fortunately, unions and airlines have realized the folly of decade-long agreements and are bargaining shorter terms, but perhaps labour code regulations that restrict any deal longer than five years in all sectors should be considered.
As to spreading the gains made at one airline to another, it may be time to look at sector-wide bargaining. ALPA represents pilots at 21 different airlines in Canada. Multi-employer bargaining is common in the trades and other sectors. No one would expect every pilot to be paid exactly the same as airlines and airplanes differ greatly, but common wage increases and narrowing of pay gaps could be achieved efficiently. Airlines can compete with quality of service and productivity rather than cheaper labour.
Finally, how can we limit government intervention and respect the rights of airline workers to bargain freely? One way may be to force airlines to adhere to a reasonable wind-down schedule prior to a legal strike deadline. Air Transat claimed it was going to start cancelling flights prior to tomorrow’s deadline, but they largely kept flights on schedule, inviting more chaos if a strike happens. If airlines were forced to post in advance a shutdown schedule during a bargaining period, passengers would know that their flight may be cancelled prior to booking. Airlines would be incentivized to get a deal before unions issue strike notices, as governments would not be as politically motivated to intervene with fewer passengers affected.
Stable industrial relations in the air travel sector is desired by politicians, employers, workers, and passengers. But relying on governments to restrict workers’ rights after a day or two of chaos is not sustainable – especially if Air Transat pilots follow the lead of flight attendants and say “enough,” and simply refuse orders to take off.