Travel Carnage as Major Airline Shuts Down After Strike in Peak Season
Air Canada has halted operations right in the middle of the summer after 10,000 flight attendants went on strike.
Kevin Carter/Getty Images
Air Canada announced it will suspend operations immediately after more than 10,000 of its flight attendants went on strike in the middle of peak travel season.
Staff staged a walkout at around 1 p.m. Eastern time Saturday, with the airline saying it would begin locking strike participants out of any airports where it is currently providing services, NPR reports.
The outlet added that the shutdown will disrupt travel for roughly 130,000 passengers each day the strike goes on, with an estimated 25,000 Canadians now stranded abroad.
“At a time when Canada is dealing with unprecedented pressures on our critical economic supply chains, the disruption of national air passenger travel and cargo transport services would cause immediate and extensive harm to all Canadians,” Goldy Hyder, chief executive of the Business Council of Canada, said in a statement.
Air Canada halted operations after more than 10,000 flight attendants went on strike after the airline failed to reach a new contract deal with their union.
NurPhoto/Artur Widak/NurPhoto
The shutdown follows after Canada’s largest airline failed to reach a new contract agreement with the Canadian Union of Public Employees amid a dispute over wages.
The union rejected proposals from the air travel provider to enter into arbitration given that this would undercut the organization’s right to strike under Canadian law as well as permitting a mediator to rule unilaterally on new terms of employment.
Patty Hajdu, Canada’s federal jobs minister, blasted both parties in a statement issued Friday night, calling on them to return to the table and reach an arrangement “once and for all.”
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“It is unacceptable that such little progress has been made,” she said. “Canadians are counting on both parties to put forward their best efforts.”
It’s estimated up to 130,000 passengers will be affected for each day the industrial action goes on.
ANDREJ IVANOV/AFP via Getty Images
Alex Laroche, a 21-year-old resident of Montreal who had been saving for a trip to Europe with his girlfriend since Christmas, spoke with NPR about his concerns.
“At this point, it’s just a waiting game,” he said of their hopes of still making the $8,000 trip, for which their lodging is non-refundable and for which it would cost them nearly double the $3,000 they spent on the original tickets to book alternative travel.
He nevertheless feels sympathy for striking staff members after reading about some of the key issues they’ve been battling with the airline over.
“Their wage is barely livable,” he said.
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