WestJet strike will continue until agreement is reached, union says, as flight cancellations rise

A strike by WestJet Airlines mechanics that resulted in hundreds of canceled flights over the Canada Day long weekend will continue until an agreement is reached, the union’s president told Reuters on Sunday.

Bret Oestreich, president of the Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association, said the two sides would meet again on Sunday with a mediator. The union represents about 680 WestJet workers, including aircraft maintenance technicians, who went on strike on Friday after 97 percent of members rejected a collective agreement negotiated in May.

“We just want to get back to the negotiating table,” said Oestreich.

“The strike will continue until we reach an agreement.”

He said the two sides are separated by an economic difference of about seven percent in the first year, or less than $8 million on a contract that lasts about four years.

WestJet, owned by Onex Corp., was not immediately available for comment Sunday.

During a press conference Saturday morning at WestJet headquarters in Calgary, both WestJet President Diederik Pen and the airline’s CEO Alexis von Hoensbroech repeatedly said they were outraged and devastated by the strike, with Von Hoensbroech calling it “completely absurd.”

“The reason you actually go on strike is because you might have to put pressure on the negotiating table. If there is no negotiating table, there is no point in all this,” he said.

He said the situation would only become “more difficult and serious” as a result of these measures.

“This is a very destructive thing. It is basically the work of a renegade US union that wants to gain a foothold in Canada and is using practices there that are very, very unusual,” said von Hoensbroech.