Union says airline is training replacement workers in advance of strike
The union representing Air Canada's flight attendants has filed a grievance over a training program for replacement workers in preparation for a possible strike, the union said on Sept. 12, 2011.
A spokesman for the Canadian Union of Public Employees said the airline, the country's largest, was training replacement workers after the flight attendants rejected a tentative contract in August. The union has filed a grievance with the company and Canada Industrial Relations Board.
Air Canada would not comment directly on the grievance or any training program. A spokesman said the airline has contingency plans in place "for a wide range of eventualities."
A strike vote wraps up on Sept. 13, 2011, with results expected to be announced later that day.
The tentative deal would have sent the issue of pension benefits for new employees to binding arbitration, the union said in August, in a compromise similar to one that ended a June strike by the airline's check-in and call-centre staff.
