This article is published in Aviation Week & Space Technology and is free to read until Jul 05, 2024. If you want to read more articles from this publication, please click the link to subscribe.
Canada’s Minister of Labor has ordered final binding arbitration to resolve negotiations between WestJet and its Aircraft Maintenance Engineers (AMEs), following two strike notices within a nine-day period.
The decision, which averts a strike set to begin as early as 5:30 p.m. MT on June 28, comes after Labor Minister Seamus O’Regan Jr. determined that the parties remained “far apart,” amid increasing tensions.
Under Canada’s labor code, the Canada Industrial Relations Board (CIRB) and Minister of Labor can in certain conditions allow a neutral third-party to issue a collective agreement.
WestJet had sought the intervention “in an effort to avoid disruption … and recognizing a broken bargaining process,” while the Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association (AMFA) opposed the path, believing it could lead to an inferior agreement “driven by industry norms,” rather than the “industry-changing contract” it sought for the first deal between the two.
The Calgary-based airline had started cancelling flights ahead of the oncoming holiday weekend in preparation for the potential strike, but on June 27, O’Regan announced his decision.
“I have directed the CIRB to impose final binding arbitration to resolve outstanding terms of the collective agreement,” he wrote in a statement. “Strong first agreements set unions and employers on the path of collective bargaining. They set a strong foundation to build upon at the bargaining table and bring the parties one step closer to a strong second agreement and an even stronger third agreement—reached at the bargaining table. That’s what we want to see here.”
AMFA said it would comply with the order, describing the action as without modern precedent.
Its latest 72-hour strike notification was issued on June 25, following a back-and-forth on a new proposal. After presenting terms it believed would achieve ratification, AMFA said WestJet countered with “an economic enhancement of less than 1% at the cost of an extended contract term.”
The union then submitted its own counterproposal along with a 72-hour strike notice, hoping to “prompt WestJet to provide its employees with a good faith offer.”
WestJet in turn described the June 25 strike notice as an apparent attempt to force unreasonable terms, stating that it had “presented a revised industry leading offer, which would see WestJet AME’s receive a 22% increase over five years, making them by far the best paid AMEs in Canada.”
AMFA’s ask “exceeds this mark by a long shot,” WestJet said.
The airline is scheduled to fly more than 250,000 passengers over the Canada Day long weekend, and had preemptively cancelled 25 flights July 27-28 in reaction to the potential strike. Given the Minister’s order, WestJet will no longer proceed in cancelling flights, it confirmed, stating that the CIRB “has taken actions to start the process.”
Though a tentative agreement was reached between the two parties in May, it was rejected by 97.5% of AMFA’s voting membership in June. The union has represented WestJet’s AMEs and skilled trade groups at the airline since March 2023.
WestJet narrowly avoided a pilot strike in May 2023, reaching a tentative agreement with just hours to spare before the work stoppage could begin.
Related Content
