The airline Air Canada announced on Sunday to suspend its flight resumption project after its hostesses and stewards decided to brave an administrative decision, continuing their strike to claim better remuneration.
The flights will not finally resume anytime soon: despite a signal in this direction sent at the start of the morning, the social conflict paralyzing the largest airline in Canada seemed in a dead end on Sunday afternoon.
Air Canada “suspended its partial flight recovery project (…) after the Canadian Public Service Syndicate (SCFP) illegally ordered its on -board agents to disobey a Canadian Industrial Relations Directive (CCRI) enjoining them to regain work,” the company announced on its site.
On Saturday morning, members of the company on board disengaged at the call of the SCFP union, pushing the airline to cancel hundreds, at the peak of the summer season.
Faced with this social crisis risking weighing down the “financial burden” of Canadians, the government had decided on Saturday to intervene to force both parties to resort to independent arbitration.
The Canadian Solicited Canadian Relations Council has “ordered Air Canada to resume its activities and all Air Canada and Red Air Canada and Air Canada Air Canada, editor’s note) to resume their functions before 2:00 p.m. EDT (6:00 p.m. GMT),” the airline said on Sunday.
But the SCFP representing the strikers called on its members to defy this directive.
“The union claims that its members will remain on strike as long as their demands on wages and the remuneration of time on the ground are not respected,” he wrote on his site.
In addition to wage increases, on -board agents ask that their hours of ground work, for example when boarding passengers, be recorded, which is not the case today.
– “Conflict of interest” –
The union had denounced the government’s intervention earlier and the existence according to him of “conflict of interest” between Maryse Tremblay, the president of the CCRI responsible for arbitrating the file, and the airline, Ms. Tremblay having worked as a legal advisor for Air Canada.
“We invite Air Canada to return to the negotiating table to conclude a fair agreement, rather than counting on the federal government to do the dirty job in its place when negotiations become a little difficult,” he said in a statement.
The company had detailed a compromise offer on Thursday, planning to bring the average annual salary of a senior on -board agent to 87,000 Canadian dollars (54,000 euros) by 2027, but the SCFP had judged insufficient proposals in terms of inflation.
Air Canada transports 130,000 passengers per day and 180 cities are served by direct flights worldwide.
This is not the first time that the Canadian government has intervened in a social conflict. In November 2024, he had thus ordered the immediate resumption of operations in several Canadian ports, then in August of the same year the return to work of the railway workers.
The Canadian economy, although showing signs of resilience, is beginning to experience the effects of the trade war initiated by US President Donald Trump, with customs duties affecting crucial sectors for the country such as automotive, aluminum and steel.
In this context, the Canadian Council of Affairs, which brings together leaders of more than a hundred large companies, said the strike was likely to cause “immediate and considerable damage to all Canadians”.
Posted on August 17 at 9:23 p.m.
