With Air Canada expected to address its negotiations with its flight attendant union this morning, the federal jobs minister says she has asked the Canada Union of Public Employees to respond to the airline’s request for binding arbitration.
“I have met with both parties throughout the bargaining process and strongly urged them to come to an agreement,” Minister Patty Hajdu wrote on X.
“Air Canada submitted a request that I make a referral under Section 107 of the Canada Labour Code to send the parties to binding arbitration. I have asked the union to respond to the employer’s request.”
Earlier this week, Air Canada sent a proposal to CUPE that the parties use binding interest arbitration to come to an agreement as they negotiate the renewal of a 10-year collective agreement for more than 10,000 flight attendants.
CUPE declined to use arbitration, a process in which an outside arbitrator would hear proposals from each side about specific agenda items that haven’t been agreed upon and then make a decision that would bind both parties.
Air Canada said earlier this week that it would start cancelling flights on Thursday to mitigate the impact of a potential strike that could start on Saturday just before 1 a.m. ET.
Canadian travellers have been anxiously waiting for news of cancelled flights. But as of 10 a.m. ET, both Air Canada’s daily outlook and the flight tracking website FlightAware didn’t show mass cancellations.
Air Canada executives Arielle Meloul-Wechsler and Mark Nasr are expected to address media outside the Sheraton Toronto Airport Hotel at 10:30 a.m. ET. CBC News will carry the livestream on this page.
CUPE’s Air Canada Component, meanwhile, will host a press conference at 1 p.m. ET at the ALT Hotel at Toronto Pearson International Airport.
