Labor Issues
 

www.aircanada.ca

July 4, 1999 - 12:40 EDT

CUSTOMER SERVICE INFORMATION

On June 30, the Minister of Labour notified Air Canada and the Airline Division of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), representing Air Canada flight attendants, that she has appointed two mediators, Thomas Dinan and Elizabeth MacPherson, to help the two parties reach a negotiated settlement without a labour disruption. As the Minister decided not to appoint a conciliation commissioner or to establish a conciliation board, CUPE will be in a legal strike position as of 23:59 EDT Wednesday, July 7, 1999. CUPE have not notified Air Canada of any possible strike date.

Should Air Canada be notified of a strike date:

If you purchased a restricted ticket for travel and wished to reschedule on alternate dates, there would be no change fee. Alternatively, you would be able to obtain a refund.
Unaccompanied minors, groups and customers requiring medical approval to travel would be contacted by an Air Canada representative who would offer alternate travel dates and/or rerouting or a refund of unused flight coupons.
Air Canada reservations agents and travel agencies would not accept new bookings and no tickets would be issued for travel on Air Canada-operated flights during the first seven days commencing with the first legal strike date.
Services that would not be affected:

Air Canada’s regional carriers, AirBC, Air Ontario, Air Alliance and Air Nova, would continue to operate their scheduled routes. Adjustments to schedules may be made to meet travellers’ demand.
Maple Leaf Lounges would remain open for eligible customers.
Air Canada customers travelling on codeshare flights operated by our partner airlines including United Airlines, Lufthansa, SAS, Air New Zealand, EVA Air and Royal Jordanian, would not be affected by a strike.

It has always been the same message on their website, they just post it everyday?

Regards,
Empress

Looks like there is a very real chance of a strike or lockout on Thursday. FAs vote 89% against the latest offer from Air Canada.

I have no AC flights booked until Aug. 12th. I'd rather that the grounding of the airline happen sooner, rather than later!

You're lucky. I'm in YVR right now, returning to YYZ on thursday. I have flights booked on AC and CP for the same time. I upgraded the AC one today and the agent who took the request laughed at the request. 'I hope you'll have something to upgrade on.'

I haven't flown CP in over 5 years. Not sure I want to start now.

Heard one of the union negotiators on the 12noon (PDT, 3pm EDT) news, and from her tone, it sounds like the FA's are eager to go on strike. She was full of the usual strike/lock-out rhetoric.

Fingers crossed, everyone?

Regards,

Ken Hamer

Scoop:

Why the avoidance of CP? If you haven't been on them on that long, then you've not had a chance to try their new, vastly improved food and wine service, new seating arrangements, lounges, etc. They are all quite a step up from several years ago.

Regards,

Ken Hamer

**** Air Canada...now all the people from Air Canada who is probably only going to take CP for the duration of the strike is going to take away our upgrade seats from us who have flown with CP for more than 10 years.

Regards,
Empress

KenHamer:

Air Canada is a huge client of my employer - hence we book on them 99% of the time (or United/Lufthansa codeshares where possible). They don't give us any deals, it's just a reciprocal business courtesy.

When I fly on personal business, i choose ac/star alliance 'cus it doesn't make any sense to start flying CP or any other carrier if i get all my status miles on AC.

I suppose if I had a choice in my business bookings I'd spread it around a little, but I don't. Seriously, it will be interesting to see what the service is like - I'm just not looking forward to the airport hassle.

I hope AC does the same thing as they did during the pilots' strike, i.e., crediting Q miles on flights flown on other airlines. (Though I look forward to some serious welcome back bonuses!)

re: Q-miles:

I don't think they really have any choice (okay, they always have a choice). You can normally get Q-miles on AC if you are "involuntarily rerouted" to a different airline. Last year we were booked LAN-ORD-YOW on United Express and AC, but the United flight was so late we couldn't catch the AC flight. They bumped us to USAir LAN-PIT-YOW. I mailed in the boarding passes and got the Q-miles for LAN-ORD-YOW.

It was particularly annoying because I'd paid $200 more to fly AC through Chicago rather than USAir through Pittsburgh in the first place!

When I was moved to AA YOW-ORD-LAX during the strike last year, I claimed Q-miles on AC (could have taken CP miles I guess). The only loss was that if I'd gone UA (ORD-LAX segment), I'd probably have gotten the triple miles.

andrew

Still one more union (IMAW -- maintenance workers) to go. They restart negotiating July 14 again.

[This message has been edited by BlondeBomber (edited 07-09-1999).]

Looks like we have a tentative agreement as of this afternoon for the machinists and aerospace workers (including maintenance and ramp personnel). Just has to go to a ratification vote. Now we get labor peace for a while! http://talk.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

Just once I would like to hear "labor troubles" called "management intractability."

Barbados AC workers union has now settled and the FAs have ratified 94% in favor the agreement reached several weeks ago before the almost strike. http://talk.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif Clear skies and happy employees.

See Dorian's post at http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/Forum.../000189-2.html about more potential labor troubles over the ONEX deal.

[This message has been edited by BlondeBomber (edited 06-01-2000).]

PS. this is labor trouble, not just management intractibility. We are going to have a strike to draw attention to a problem that doesn't exist (yet)!