Travelers waiting at a WestJet counter at Toronto Pearson International airport on June 30, 2024 in Toronto, Canada amid flight cancellations due to the WestJet Airlines mechanics strike.
WestJet mechanics followed through with a strike notice over the weekend, a work stoppage previously believed averted after government intervention.
The strike, initiated on June 28, ceased on June 30, as the two parties reached a tentative agreement (TA). More than 800 flights were canceled over the weekend as a result, WestJet said, as the airline parked 130 aircraft at 13 airports across Canada.
“Lack of clarity from the government and the decisions taken by the [Canada Industrial Relations Board] CIRB allowed for a strike to occur amidst binding arbitration,” the airline said in announcing the strike’s end. “With no path forward to resolution, both parties made essential movements to find common ground and achieve an agreement.”
The TA provides for immediate pay increases of 15.5% plus annual pay bumps of 3.25% for the next year, then 2.5% pay bumps for each of the next three years over the five-year term, as well as improved benefits, the Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association (AMFA) said. It still must be ratified by membership.
“We will see no further labor action coming out of this dispute, as both parties agree to arbitrate the contract in the case of a failed ratification,” Diederik Pen, WestJet Airlines president and group COO said. The airline anticipates further disruptions over the coming week as it works to get aircraft and crew back into position.
Ahead of the four-day Canada Day holiday weekend, WestJet and AMFA had been referred to final binding arbitration by Canada’s Labor Minister Seamus O’Regan Jr., an action he deemed necessary as the parties remained “far apart” and “tensions have only increased,” O’Regan said in a June 27 statement. Under Canada’s labor code, the process assigns a third-party arbitrator to resolve the outstanding terms of a collective bargaining agreement.
Though WestJet had sought the arbitration “in an effort to avoid disruption ... and recognizing a broken bargaining process,” AMFA had 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.
Given the Minister’s decision, and AMFA’s agreement to comply, “a strike or lockout will not occur, and the airline will no longer proceed in cancelling flights,” WestJet said as arbitration was announced on June 27.
But the following day both parties appeared before the CIRB—an independent administrative tribunal—to address the referral, and clarity was sought on the continued validity of AMFA’s strike notice, which had been set to begin later that evening.
“AMFA counsel argued that because the referral by the Minister was silent on the issue, AMFA members’ constitutional right to strike must prevail,” the union said. “At 7:30 p.m. EST [on June 28], having had no indication that the Board would revoke AMFA’s strike notice, AMFA directed its members to cease all work. At approximately 8:00 p.m. EST, the Board reconvened the parties and confirmed that it would not enjoin the AMFA strike.”
In its decision, CIRB stated, “the board finds that the ministerial referral does not have the effect of suspending the right to strike or lockout.”
WestJet called the strike action “pure retaliation” and started canceling flights for Saturday June 29—the start of the Canada Day holiday weekend. Though initially describing the CIRB’s decision as “clearly inconsistent” with his direction, O’Regan later acknowledged the board as “independent of the government,” saying, “I respect its authority.”
In announcing the TA on June 30, AMFA said it believed the outcome “would not have been possible without the strike, but we do regret the disruption and inconvenience it has caused the traveling public over the Canada Day holiday period.” It noted, “Ratification will render the compulsory arbitration ordered by the Labor Minister unnecessary.”
Though an initial TA had been reached in May, it was rejected by 97.5% of AMFA’s voting membership in June. The second TA provides “substantial improvements over both the current terms of employment and the terms provided for in the first tentative agreement,” AMFA said.
The union has represented the airline’s Aircraft Maintenance Engineers and skilled trade groups since March 2023.
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