Airline's 6,500 flight attendants could walk off the job Sept. 21
UPDATE: Flight attendant union serves Air Canada with strike notice
The earliest the flight attendants, represented by the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), could walk off the job is Sept. 21, 2011, when the current conciliation process ends. The union must provide the airline with 72 hours notice of a strike.
Of the flight attendants who voted in a 10-day cross-country poll, 98 per cent were in favour of giving their union representatives a strike mandate, CUPE Local 4095 President Ricardo Miranda said.
The vote comes after a majority of Air Canada's more than 6,500 flight attendants rejected a tentative labour agreement reached by their negotiators in August 2011.
Flight attendants also filed a grievance over a training program for replacement workers in preparation for a possible strike, the union said earlier this week. A spokesman for the union said the airline was training replacement workers after the flight attendants rejected last month’s offer. The union has filed a grievance with the company and Canada Industrial Relations Board.
Read more: Air Canada flight attendant union files grievance
The flight attendants' previous contract with the airline expired on March 31, 2011.
- with files from Reuters
