With just days to go until 4,400 Westjet flight attendants could go on strike, both sides are still at the bargaining table.
Air industry analysts and labour experts say a strike is unlikely, but still possible.
In an emailed statement Tuesday afternoon, the head of the union representing flight attendants said the country’s second-biggest airline still needs to move closer to the union’s demands for higher wages, including “ground pay” for non-flight time.
“We want to continue bargaining, but it’s up to WestJet to make the meaningful progress needed to avoid a strike. Our members don’t want to go on strike, but we are prepared to if necessary,” said Alia Hussain, president of the Canadian Union of Public Employees’ Local 8125. “Flight attendants should be paid for all the work they do, and we can no longer remain amongst the lowest paid in Canada.”
A CUPE spokesperson said Tuesday the two sides were still at the table.
In an email, the airline said it was still hopeful a deal can be reached to avert a strike before Sunday’s 2:01 a.m. EDT deadline.
“WestJet remains actively engaged in negotiations and is fully prepared to make meaningful improvements that work for cabin crew members while balancing the future sustainability of WestJet. We are optimistic we can arrive at an agreement,” the company said.
Last month, CUPE members voted 99.4 per cent in favour of a strike. Despite the strike vote, the union still needs to give the company 72 hours notice of any intended strike action.
Even though a gap still exists between the two sides, air industry analysts and labour experts say a strike isn’t likely to actually happen, and expect the deal Air Canada reached with its own flight attendants last year will serve as the template for a Westjet deal.
With airlines across the continent seeing strong revenue and fewer empty seats this summer, Westjet likely doesn’t want to disrupt the good times, argued John Gradek, head of the aviation management program at McGill University.
“I think they’re probably looking at this as ‘let’s keep our head down and not rock the boat. Let’s reap the benefits of the summer. We’re making money and fares are high,” said Gradek. “I don’t think their shareholders would appreciate it.”
Air Canada’s flight attendants agreed to a four-year deal last summer, with wage increases of two per cent each year. The deal also included an agreement to partly pay them for the first hour of time spent waiting on the ground. That “ground pay” will see them get 50 per cent of their usual hourly wage in the first year, with yearly increases bringing it to 80 per cent by the fourth year.
But that groundbreaking deal only came after a four-day strike which snarled travel plans across the country, and cost Air Canada millions of dollars in delays, cancellations and compensation.
“They saw the price Air Canada had to pay for that strike, and I think the appetite is not to increase the cost pile while they’re having a good summer,” Gradek added.
The union is keen on expanding ground pay to Westjet, arguing that flight attendants work up to 35 unpaid hours per month, a claim hotly disputed by the airline.
“Rather than paying a lower hourly wage for every hour on duty, the credit hour system combines flight time, ground duties, delays, and other required work into a single, higher rate of pay. That rate is then ‘credited’ across the full duty day,” Westjet said in a Q+A section on its website.
To avoid a PR nightmare — and to avoid the costs associated with a work stoppage — Westjet is likely looking to settle with CUPE, said Steven Tufts, a labour studies professor at York University.
“I think there’s a good chance they’ll settle before a work action,” said Tufts.
Still, Tufts warned, the airline could be counting on the federal government to issue back-to-work legislation, even pre-emptively. That could lead the airline to take a sterner line than it otherwise would be tempted to, Tufts argued.
“They could be saying ‘let’s take a free roll, and we can keep the costs down,’” said Tufts. “They also know the government probably has their backs.”
But back to work legislation would almost certainly include binding arbitration. And with Air Canada’s deal with its own flight attendants as an example, it would be hard for Westjet to maintain any hard line, argued Barry Prentice, director of the University of Manitoba’s Transportation Institute.
“If it goes to arbitration and the Air Canada deal’s there, I don’t think an arbitrator would be impressed if they said the ground pay is unmanageable,” said Prentice.
