WestJet union ends strike after over 800 flight cancellations and agreement with airline – Everything you need to know – Airlines/Aviation News

Canada’s second-largest airline WestJet has cancelled 829 flights from Thursday, June 27 to Monday, July 1, which is also considered the busiest travel weekend of the season. The reason for this is a strike by 680 workers who are engaged in daily inspection and repair work for the airline. However, according to recent developments, the union representing striking WestJet Airlines mechanics has negotiated a contract with the airline that will immediately end their strike on Monday, July 1.

Of the 829 cancelled flights, 410 flights, or almost 50 percent of the total, were cancelled on Sunday alone.

Thousands of people affected

The cancellation of hundreds of flights has the tendency to affect the lives of thousands of people, resulting in the cancellation of business meetings, vacations, and more. Moreover, it has definitely affected the airline’s bottom line and the daily lives of the employees.The flight cancellation reportedly affected the plans of around 110,000 travellers over the Canada Day long weekend and prompted the airline to to demand action from the federal government.

Among the many commuters was Trevor Temple-Murray, who was waiting in a car with his wife and two-year-old son in the parking lot of Victoria Airport, British Columbiahad to reschedule their flight with less than a day’s notice. Temple-Murray said we would just have to wait while we tried to get a flight to Calgary. Their 6:05 p.m. flight had been canceled, and they wouldn’t find out until that evening whether or not a flight scheduled for 7 a.m. the next day would go ahead. “There are a lot of angry people in there,” Temple-Murray said, pointing to the terminal.

Another flight participant, Marina Cebrian, a 10th-grade exchange student, said she was supposed to be back home in Spain early Sunday but will now not be able to return to her family until Tuesday after three flight cancellations.

Why did WestJet employees go on strike?

Workers responsible for daily inspections and repairs to flight operations went on strike Friday evening to demand a wage increase, despite the labor minister’s instruction to resort to binding arbitration.

WestJet Airlines President Diederik Pen said in a statement Sunday that the airline has received a binding arbitration award and is urgently awaiting clarification from the government that a strike and arbitration cannot occur simultaneously. “They have committed to addressing this issue and, like all Canadians, we are waiting for that to happen,” Pen added.

The union’s goal with this strike is to reach an agreement through negotiations rather than arbitration, a path it has always rejected. According to the union, WestJet would lose less than 8 million Canadian dollars (5.6 million U.S. dollars) due to its salary proposals, compared to what the company has allocated for the first year of the collective agreement, which is the first contract between the two companies. It has admitted that benefits would be higher than industry wages. colleagues in Canada and more on par with those in the US. WestJet says it has offered a 12.5 percent pay increase in the first year of the contract and a cumulative 23.5 percent pay increase for the remainder of the 5.5-year term.

Is the airline back on the runway?

The airline negotiated a contract today, July 1, to end the strike with immediate effect. The union said the contract covers the next five years, but did not provide further details on the new wage agreement.

Westjet has said members would resume work to restore the network after the airline was forced to ground 130 aircraft at 13 airports across Canada. The airline is expected to experience further disruption in the coming week as it needs to get aircraft and crew back into position.

“WestJet and AMFA have reached a tentative agreement because Canadians’ patience has been stretched too thin,” said Canadian Labour Minister Seamus O’Regan in a post on X. The minister had called on the union and the airline to resolve their differences and reach an agreement.

(with contributions from the agency)