Article content

(Bloomberg) — Air Canada reached a last-minute pact with the pilots’ union, averting a strike that would have grounded more than 1,000 daily flights worldwide. 

Air Canada and the Air Line Pilots Association, which represents the company’s more than 5,000 pilots, arrived at a tentative agreement for a new four-year contract, according to a statement. The terms of the agreement remain confidential pending a ratification vote, the airline said.

Article content

Negotiations went on for more than a year. ALPA sought to close a pay gap with US counterparts, especially in entry-level wages for pilots. The airline had offered to increase the aviators’ pay by about 30% within the next three years, including an upfront 20% pay boost.

“After several consecutive weeks of intense round-the-clock negotiations, progress was made on several key issues including compensation, retirement, and work rules,” Charlene Hudy, chair of ALPA’s executive council for Air Canada pilots, said in a statement. The deal requires the approval of a majority of voting members. 

The Montreal-based airline says it carries over 110,000 passengers a day and 30% of Canada’s air freight. Goods such as refrigerated pharmaceutical products, perishable food, car parts, chips for computers and live animals are shipped through its cargo services. Air Canada is also the largest foreign carrier in the US with as many as 400 daily transborder flights. 

Air Canada had asked the federal government to request arbitration as soon as this weekend if there was no breakthrough in negotiations.

Canadian and US business lobby groups had called on the government to intervene, saying Canada’s supply chains and international reputation have already been damaged by recent labor disruptions at railways and ports.

—With assistance from Mary Schlangenstein.

(Adds comment from pilots’ union executive in fourth paragraph.)

Share this article in your social network