Will Air Canada pilots strike? Union vote results coming
Air Canada pilots have been voting to decide on whether they will go on strike, and the vote ends Thursday.
The Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA), the union representing the pilots, says they are hoping to avoid a work stoppage but are prepared to go on strike if the impasse continues.
The vote would only give the union power to call a strike on behalf of its members and an actual strike is unlikely to start before mid-September.
Several rounds of talks took place between the airline and the union between January a nd June. At the end of June, however, they entered a 60-day period of federal conciliation. That ends on Aug. 26, after which a 21-day cooling period will begin.
If an agreement is not reached by then, pilots could go on strike.
An ALPA spokesperson said if members vote for a strike mandate, the union would be empowered under the Canada Labour Code to walk off the job when the cooling-off period ends.
“We want to reach an agreement with Air Canada to avert a strike and although we have made some progress in conciliation, management continues to force us closer to a strike position by not listening to our most pressing needs at the negotiating table regarding fair compensation, respectable retirement benefits, and quality-of-life improvements,” Charlene Hudy, ALPA’s Air Canada master executive council chair, told Global News last week.
Hudy said while they made headway in the talks between January and June, they had reached an “impasse” with Air Canada on some key issues.
The airline, however, said negotiations are continuing.
“Already, we have reached agreement on several items. We are working actively to reach agreement on the remaining issues with an aim to finalize a deal over the next several weeks,” an
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