Following an aircraft mechanics strike on Friday evening that left thousands of travellers scrambling, WestJet says it has cancelled a number of additional flights over the Canada Day long weekend that is expected to affect more than 49,000 passengers.
Canada’s second-largest airline announced it has cancelled a total of 407 flights that were set to fly between Thursday and Tuesday “to maintain stability across its remaining operation.”
On Saturday, 282 flights were cancelled and a total of 43 flights booked with the airline between Thursday to Friday were also axed.
WestJet has cancelled an additional 82 trips — 68 set to fly on Sunday, 11 on Monday and three on Tuesday.
The company said that it would continue parking aircraft on Sunday to safely reduce its operating fleet to approximately 30 by Sunday evening.
The travel disruptions come after some 670 mechanics with WestJet, represented by the Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association (AMFA), walked off the job in strike action on Friday evening despite being sent to arbitration with the airline the day before.
In a statement on Friday, the union said the mechanics “were hopeful this action would be unnecessary but the airline’s unwillingness to negotiate with the union made the strike inevitable.”
“While the AMEs (aircraft maintenance engineers) and their union are eager to get back to work, the timeline for that is very much in the hands of WestJet Management,” the AMFA said.
WestJet has since responded to the strike action and said it is “outraged” by the decision.
“Today has been incredibly challenging for all of us at WestJet. Every flight cancellation we are forced to issue represents hundreds of guests, who are being impacted by the continued reckless actions of this union,” WestJet president Diederik Pen said in a statement Saturday.
The strike action, which had loomed heavy as long weekend air travel inched closer, was believed to have been averted earlier this week when federal Labour Minister Seamus O’Regan invoked his authority under the Canada Labour Code to send WestJet and its mechanics union into binding arbitration to resolve their bargaining impasse.
Ian Evershed, an airline representative for AMFA and its WestJet mechanics, said the news of O’Regan’s order left union leadership feeling somewhat “deflated,” expecting the subsequent order from the Canada Industrial Relations Board would prohibit any strike action as a new deal was hammered out. That outcome wasn’t the only one on the table, but as previously reported by the Star, it was considered likely given precedent in past board cases.
But in a surprise move on Friday, the board permitted the union to move ahead with a strike. “The Board finds that the ministerial referral does not have the effect of suspending the right to strike or lockout,” the industrial relations board wrote, according to an order document published by the union.
“We’re not sure if we’re in uncharted territory here,” Evershed said.
As the strike entered its first full day Saturday, he said their hope was to continue negotiations in advance of arbitration. Key sticking points, in his view, largely pertained to mechanics’ wages and overtime calculations.
Despite calling the strike “clearly inconsistent” with his directive to refer the bargaining dispute to arbitration Saturday morning, O’Regan said he will respect the industrial relations board decision to allow the abrupt job action.
“The Board is independent of the government and I respect its authority. I will be meeting the parties later today to discuss this matter,” O’Regan wrote in a Saturday afternoon statement.
The cancellations sparked chaos for those who had planned to fly on the busy Canada Day long weekend. One customer, who asked that his name not be included, said his family rescheduled their March vacation to Mexico after their airline, Lynx, ceased operations. They rescheduled their vacation to this week — only to learn 17 hours before take off from Pearson airport that their WestJet flight was cancelled.
He said he’s spent hours on hold with customer service as the clock ticks on their resort reservation that’s worth thousands of dollars.
“Last-minute, they’re doing this to us. Now we’re scrambling,” he said. “We are royally stuck.”
WestJet says it is continuing to “seek intervention” and is looking at every possible way to minimize disruption the strike may cause.
With files from Ghada Alsharif, Victoria Gibson, Mark Colley and Abhiraj Lamba
