After turning down the proposed deal twice, flight attendants plan on going on strike this Thursday. Air Canada has started preparing for the strike by introducing a “flexible booking policy” where customers can change their reservations for free as long as seats are available. In the event of a strike, they plan on using managers as replacement workers and relying on partnerships with foreign carriers in the case of international flights.
In the proposal, Air Canada planned to improve work rules for “duty days” by introducing a new system to calculate paid times during stopovers. For example, some shifts in layovers can last 13 hours and pay out 6.5 hours of wages, the proposal planned to increase this to 9 hours of paid wages. This work rule would be based on the formula “duty day minus 4 hours” and would be effective October 1, 2012. Despite Air Canada’s efforts, more than 65% of the Canadian Union of Public Employees voted to reject the proposed deal on September 20. Most likely, the federal government will intervene with back-to-work legislation to stop the strike from happening.
There is no question that flight attendants have to work under difficult conditions however I feel like Air Canada proposed a fair deal. A strike will only cause both parties to suffer as Air Canada will lose market share and could go bankrupt (again), thus losing all potential jobs. Flight attendants need to realize how difficult it will be in this economy to find better jobs.