Air Canada flight attendants vote against agreement reached last month, but operations to continue

Toronto – Around 10,000 Air Canada hostesses have obtained the employer’s salary offer that the union and the airline agreed last month, but another strike is not expected.

Air Canada hostesses concluded voting on Saturday with a new tentative contract, with 99.1% voting for the airline’s salary offer.

The airline says that the salary portion will now be sent to mediation as previously agreed on both parties.

«Air Canada and Cupe contemplated this potential result and agreed to mutually that if the tentative agreement was not ratified, the salary part would refer to mediation and, if no agreement was reached at that stage, arbitration,» said the airline in a statement.

«The parties also agreed that work interruption could not start and, therefore, there will be no attack or block, and the flights will continue to operate.»

The Air Canada component of the Canadian Union of Public Employees says that most of the terms would still be part of a new collective agreement with the airline, with the exception of the salary problem.

Air Canada restarted the operations on August 19 after reaching an agreement with the Union for 10,000 hostesses to finish a strike that interrupted the travel plans of hundreds of thousands of travelers. The strike affected some 130,000 travelers per day at the top of the summer travel season.