An aviation expert says that Air Canada’s plea to the federal government to be prepared to intervene in the carrier’s labour dispute with its pilots’ union may have long been a part of the airline’s negotiation plans.
“I think the gameplan all along has been to let the government solve their problem,” John Gradek, lecturer and coordinator at McGill University’s aviation management program, told BNN Bloomberg in a Friday interview.
“I think the government really has played its cards quite openly over the last few months when they got involved in the WestJet mechanics strike and in the CPKC and CN dispute, and Air Canada is just expecting to have the same activity handed over to them.”
Unless a last-minute deal is reached this weekend, Air Canada’s pilots union will be in a position to issue a 72-hour strike notice as of Sunday, putting a full-scale work stoppage starting Wednesday on the table.
Gradek said the two sides remain far apart in talks, with the main sticking point being wages.
“I don’t think Air Canada really has an appetite for the type of wage increases that the pilots’ union is looking for and I think Air Canada is abdicating its negotiations in looking for government intervention,” he said.
Gradek said that Air Canada likely believes binding arbitration by the federal government would lead to more modest wage gains than what the union would agree to at the negotiating table.
The union, meanwhile, is not in favour of arbitration, Gradek said, noting that the last time the two sides had a contract arbitrated was in 2012, and it led to a 10-year agreement with raises of two per cent per year – compensation the union maintains was below market value.
“Right now, (the pilots) are not in favour of arbitration, they really want to get around the negotiating table and sort this out as two parties that want an agreement, and it seems at this point in time that Air Canada is not interested in that negotiation,” he said.
‘Cooler heads will start to prevail’
Gradek argued that despite Air Canada’s request for government help last week, the feds may decide not to intervene right away in the event of a full work stoppage since it isn’t peak travel season, and passengers can use other airlines for travel.
“There is lots of capacity in the marketplace; there is WestJet, there is Flair, there is Porter… so, it’s not as if we have a national emergency if Air Canada goes into a work stoppage,” he said.
“The work stoppage may last a week or 10 days at most before cooler heads will start to prevail. Air Canada will be losing somewhere in the range of $50 (million) or $60 million worth of revenue per day… pressure will be put back on Air Canada management to get back to the negotiating table.”
With files from The Canadian Press
