TORONTO — Canada’s second-largest airline, WestJet, says it has canceled 407 flights affecting 49,000 passengers after a maintenance workers union announced a strike.
The Fraternal Association of Aircraft Maintenance Engineers said the strike was inevitable due to airlines’ “reluctance to negotiate with the union” and that members began the walkout on Friday evening.
The sudden strike, which affected international and domestic flights, came after the federal government issued a ministerial order calling for binding arbitration on Thursday and followed two weeks of intense talks with unions over a new agreement.
WestJet said on Monday it would keep its planes parked until Sunday ahead of the Canada Day long weekend.
The airline has a fleet of about 200 planes and plans to have around 30 in the air by Sunday evening.
The airline’s CEO, Alexis von Hornsbroek, placed all blame for the situation on “lawless American unions” trying to expand into Canada.
Von Hohensbroek said that as far as the airline was concerned, negotiations with the unions ended when the government took the dispute to binding arbitration.
“The strike is completely absurd because the reason for the strike is that we need to put pressure on the negotiating table,” he said. “If there is no negotiating table, there is no point. There should be no strike.”
He added that the union rejected a contract proposal that would have made the airline’s mechanics “the highest paid in the country.”
In an update to members, the union’s bargaining committee pointed to a Canada Labour Relations Board order that does not explicitly prohibit any strikes or lockouts while the arbitration tribunal conducts its arbitration.
Sean McVay, a WestJet aircraft mechanic who picketed at Terminal 3 at Toronto Pearson International Airport on Saturday, said the strike was an attempt to force the airline to return to “respectful negotiations.”