{"id":69784,"date":"2025-08-14T19:45:24","date_gmt":"2025-08-14T19:45:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/69784\/"},"modified":"2025-08-14T19:45:24","modified_gmt":"2025-08-14T19:45:24","slug":"air-canada-asks-for-binding-arbitration-as-imminent-shutdown-looms-national","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/69784\/","title":{"rendered":"Air Canada asks for binding arbitration as imminent shutdown looms – National"},"content":{"rendered":"

Canada\u2019s jobs minister has asked the union representing Air Canada<\/a>\u2018s flight attendants to respond to the airline\u2019s request for her to send the two parties to binding arbitration.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u201cAir Canada submitted a request that I make a referral under Section 107 of the Canada Labour Code to send the parties to binding arbitration,\u201d Patty Hajdu wrote in a letter posted on X<\/a> on Thursday morning.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have asked the union to respond to the employer\u2019s request.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Click<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t4:44
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tBargaining breakdown in Air Canada talks to trigger possible job action\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Her request comes as both the airline and union spoke Thursday, calling on the other side to continue negotiations before a strike or lockout begin Saturday.<\/p>\n

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Air Canada executives defended its decision Thursday morning, saying they still want to reach a deal at the table despite the union rejecting their recent offers.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re still available for negotiations, we\u2019re still available for consensual arbitration, should that all not materialize, we do have to think about the very serious disruptions that would ensue,\u201d said Arielle Meloul-Wechsler, Air Canada\u2019s executive vice-president, chief human resources officer and public affairs.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have asked for the government to consider intervening if we get to that point, but we are doing everything in our power to avoid getting to that point.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tMore on Canada
\n\t\t\tMore videos\n\t\t<\/p>\n

Speaking with reporters Thursday afternoon,\u00a0 Wesley Lesosky, president of the Canadian Union of Public Employees\u2019s (CUPE) Air Canada component, criticized the move by the airline.<\/p>\n

\u201cInstead of staying at the table, the company has called on the federal government to intervene on their behalf to interfere with negotiations by taking away our members\u2019 Charter rights to free and fair collective bargaining,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\"Get<\/p>\n

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Get the day’s top news, political, economic, and current affairs headlines, delivered to your inbox once a day.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe government cannot change positions now and intervene on Air Canada\u2019s behalf.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lesosky stressed the union has remained at the bargaining table and has been waiting for a response by Air Canada to the offer it presented Tuesday evening.<\/p>\n

Asked how long the strike could go for, Lesosky said he still believes a deal is possible but the company needs to \u201ccome with more\u201d in terms of wages \u2013 a key sticking point in negotiations.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI do think that this is something we can settle at the bargaining table, but it takes two parties to entertain that,\u201d he said. \u201cUnfortunately, again, Air Canada hasn\u2019t come back to discuss wages.\u201d<\/p>\n

In her post, Hajdu said she\u2019s met with both parties throughout the bargaining process and urged them to come to an agreement at the bargaining table.<\/p>\n

She also called the decision by CUPE to issue a strike notice and Air Canada\u2019s notice of lockout was a \u201cdisappointing development\u201d for Canadians.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\tSome flights already cancelled with more to come\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

With the potential strike and lockout just two days away, Air Canada has already begun to cancel flights in preparation for the potential job action and lockout.<\/p>\n

Mark Nasr, executive vice-president and chief operations officer, told reporters \u201cseveral dozen\u201d cancellations will take place Thursday, impacting mostly long-haul international flights departing this evening.<\/p>\n

\n\t\tTrending Now\n\t<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"\/<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\tGot an Air Canada ticket? Your rights, as strike flight cancellations begin\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"\/<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\tAI could lead to \u2018short-term dystopia,\u2019 warns former Google executive\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

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He said it\u2019s expected by end of day Friday, about 500 flights will have been cancelled.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn order to have a safe and orderly wind down, we need to begin now,\u201d Nasr said. \u201cBy tomorrow evening, we expect to have cancelled flights affecting over 100,000 customers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nasr said by Saturday morning, the airline\u2019s mainline and Rouge flights will be completely grounded. He said it\u2019s expected to impact 130,000 customers a day, including about 25,000 Canadians daily that are usually brought home from abroad who \u201crisk\u201d being stranded.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t2:26
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tConsumer Matters: What an Air Canada strike means for passengers\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Air Canada has said customers whose flights are cancelled will be notified and they\u2019ll be eligible for a full refund, which can be obtained online or by its mobile app.<\/p>\n

Nasr said \u201cevery attempt\u201d would be made to rebook customers on more than 120 other airlines, including Air Canada\u2019s competitors, but cautioned peak summer season meant there would be limits.<\/p>\n

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For those unable to be accommodated, he said they will have two options, either receive a full refund of their ticket or rebook their travel for a later date without a fee.<\/p>\n

Global News reached out to Porter Airlines, WestJet, Flair and Air Transat on Wednesday to inquire about how they\u2019re responding to the looming strike.<\/p>\n

Flair and WestJet both replied saying they were monitoring demand trends, with WestJet saying it would explore opportunities to support Canadians in situations there\u2019s an \u201cuncontrollable impact.\u201d<\/p>\n

Porter said it had seen an increase in \u201cclose-in bookings,\u201d which may be a result of the uncertainty, but added they\u2019re operating on a full schedule to give travellers options. It added it has passenger protection agreements with several airlines whose passengers are experiencing travel disruptions.<\/p>\n

Air Transat, in an email Wednesday evening, told Global News Air Canada had contacted the airline regarding \u201cre-protection\u201d of some travellers through the two companies\u2019 irregular operations agreement. It said it would accommodate those passengers subject to availability.<\/p>\n

All four airlines, however, noted capacity due to the summer schedule when asked about potential changes to flights or routes.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t&copy 2025 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Canada\u2019s jobs minister has asked the union representing Air Canada\u2018s flight attendants to respond to the airline\u2019s request…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":69785,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[23684,36802,49,48,1849,44,714],"class_list":{"0":"post-69784","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-canada","8":"tag-air-canada","9":"tag-air-canada-strike","10":"tag-ca","11":"tag-canada","12":"tag-consumer","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-politics"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69784","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=69784"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69784\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/69785"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69784"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69784"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69784"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}