UPDATED: Air Canada flight attendants vote to strike “if necessary”

Air Canada’s flight attendants have voted in favour of strike action “if necessary.”

The Air Canada Component of CUPE — the union representing over 10,000 flight attendants at Air Canada and Air Canada Rouge – said in a statement that its members have voted 99.7% in favour of strike action, if necessary.

The union said that the vote “reflects the deep frustration of flight attendants after months of negotiations without result, due to the airline’s refusal to fairly negotiate on key issues like unpaid work, work rules, and poverty-level wages.”

Wesley Lesosky, president of the Air Canada Component of CUPE, commented: “The company would rather drag their feet than negotiate on the things that matter to our members. Now, flight attendants have had a chance to weigh in and tell the company it’s time to get serious about negotiating.”

In its statement, the union notes that a strike vote is a necessary precursor for legal job action but does not necessarily mean that Air Canada flight attendants will be going on strike.

It also points out that since 2000, inflation has increased 169% and average full-time wages have increased 210% in Canada. But entry-level Air Canada flight attendants’ wages have increased only 10% – just $3 per hour – in the past 25 years.

Meanwhile, the union points out, Air Canada flight attendants are not paid for a significant portion of their time on the job, including while they perform critical safety checks, attend to onboard medical and safety emergencies, and assist passengers with boarding and deplaning.

Said Lesosky: “While the airline continues to slap junk fees on flyers and gouge the public, they’re also exploiting their own employees by severely underpaying flight attendants or refusing to pay them at all for safety-critical aspects of our jobs.”

And he added: “Air Canada has raked billions in profits in the past few years. They can afford to pay us fairly without raising costs for the public.”

Now that the strike vote has been taken, the union could be in a legal strike as soon as August 16 at 12:01AM ET.

Air Canada issues statement following vote

In a statement issued following its flight attendants’ vote to provide the union with a mandate to strike should an agreement not be reached between the company and CUPE through the ongoing negotiations, Air Canada indicated that such a vote is a normal step in the negotiation process and does not mean that any disruption will take place.

The airline said that it “remains committed to the bargaining process and is eager to resume discussions, which CUPE had suspended during the vote. Air Canada is determined to reach a fair and equitable collective agreement that recognizes the contributions of its Flight Attendants and supports the competitiveness and long-term growth of the company.”

It also made it clear that it “firmly believes that there is more than enough time to reach such an agreement and avoid disrupting the plans of hundreds of thousands of travellers. The 21-day cool off period expires at 12:01 am Eastern Daylight Time on Saturday, August 16, meaning no job action can take place before that time at the earliest.”

Air Canada also noted that the negotiations cover flight attendants working for Air Canada’s main operations and Air Canada Rouge. As a reminder, flight attendants working for Jazz and PAL, which operate Air Canada Express flights, are not affected by the negotiations or the strike vote.

And the airline has also provided background information on the negotiations on its website and you can CLICK HERE to access that information.