The union representing Air Canada’s flight attendants says it has declined a proposal by the airline to resolve negotiations through arbitration.<\/p>\n
In an update posted on the bargaining committee’s website, the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) wrote that Air Canada had proposed referring the matter to binding interest arbitration.<\/p>\n
That process would bring a third-party arbitrator into the talks to mediate on specific items that haven’t been agreed on by both sides and render a decision.<\/p>\n
It would also suspend the chance of a lockout or strike.\u00a0CUPE members voted overwhelmingly in favour of a strike mandate last week, setting up a potential strike to begin as soon as 12:01 a.m. ET on Aug. 16.<\/p>\n
CUPE published a letter addressed to the president of its Air Canada component, Wesley Lesosky, and\u00a0signed by Air Canada vice-president and human resources chief Arielle Meloul-Wechsler on Monday.<\/p>\n
“After eight\u00a0months of negotiation, we have been unable to reach a tentative collective agreement despite our best efforts,” the letter says.<\/p>\n
Outlining the proposal, it\u00a0adds that\u00a0“if we cannot agree on an arbitrator within 30 days of your agreeing to the proposal, we ask the Minister of Labour to name one.”<\/p>\n
Air Canada has communicated to the union that the sides are too far apart, according to CUPE.\u00a0The union says in its update that it intends to stay at the bargaining table.<\/p>\n
A representative for CUPE told CBC News that both sides are “back to evaluating proposals” after their exchange.\u00a0CBC News has reached out to\u00a0Air Canada for comment.<\/p>\n
Binding interest arbitration tends to be preferred by employers “because you are avoiding the strike and the business disruption,” said Malini\u00a0Vijaykumar,\u00a0employment and labour lawyer at Nelligan Law in Ottawa.<\/p>\n
Talks ongoing since March<\/p>\n
CUPE’s Air Canada component represents more than 10,000 flight\u00a0attendants who work for the major airline and its budget carrier\u00a0Air Canada Rouge.<\/p>\n
Some of those workers\u00a0held demonstrations outside four major Canadian airports on Monday for what the union called a “day of action.”<\/p>\n
The union says the most contentious issues at the bargaining table are wages\u00a0\u2014\u00a0which it says have not kept pace with inflation \u2014 and unpaid work that occurs before boarding and after deplaning, such as safety checks and assisting passengers.<\/p>\n
CUPE\u00a0said last week that it would\u00a0continue talks with Air Canada until Aug. 15, the day before a potential strike.<\/p>\n
The two parties have been negotiating since March, when the previous 10-year collective agreement expired. But the talks reached an impasse in May, at which point the union filed for conciliation with the federal labour minister.<\/p>\n