Travellers watch as WestJet cancels flights, no end in sight to mechanics’ strike – Winnipeg Free Press

CALGARY – Travelers flying with WestJet continue to watch as the airline cancels more flights due to a sudden strike by its mechanics union.

The Calgary-based airline said it had cancelled 407 flights over the Canada Day long weekend in an effort to “maintain stability.”

Most flights were cancelled on Saturday, with 282 trips on WestJet aircraft being cancelled.

“Every flight cancellation we have to make represents hundreds of passengers affected by the ongoing reckless actions of this union,” said Diederik Pen, president of WestJet Airlines, in a statement released late Saturday night.

The flight cancellations came after members of the Airplane Mechanics Fraternal Association walked out of work Friday afternoon, saying WestJet’s “unwillingness to negotiate with the union made the strike inevitable.”

The industrial action came after union members rejected a collective agreement with WestJet earlier this month and two weeks of tense negotiations between the two parties.

The federal government then intervened and forced WestJet and the union to enter into binding arbitration.

Friday’s strike came as a surprise to many WestJet flights and travelers are now wondering if they will be stranded far from home.

“Big delays, phone line dead. ‘Unplanned maintenance’, that’s not good. I’m sitting in the YYC lounge. Can I go home?” Nanaimo resident Luke Antrim said on X.

In an update to its members, AMFA leadership released a letter from the Canada Industrial Relations Board on its decision, saying that the ministry’s referral “does not result in a suspension of the right to strike or lockout.”