Air Canada’s flight attendants plan to go on strike this weekend after contract talks with the airline reached an impasse.
The Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) gave the carrier a requisite 72-hour notice after the two sides reached an "impasse" in negotiations, News.Az reports, citing CBC News.
The earliest their more than 10,000 workers can walk off the job is on Saturday at 12:58 a.m. ET.
CUPE representatives say that in response to their strike action, Air Canada has issued a notice of lockout starting at 1:30 a.m. ET on Saturday.
"We do hope that Air Canada will come to some form of rationale and show up at the table and truly engage us in bargaining the final pieces of this," said Wesley Lesosky, president of CUPE Air Canada Component, holding out hope for a deal before Saturday.
The two sides have been negotiating a new collective agreement since March, going over key issues like wages, work rules and unpaid hours.
In an interview on Tuesday afternoon, Christophe Hennebelle, Air Canada's vice-president of corporate communications, said that "there's a huge gap still between the union's request and what we can offer."
"We've offered an increase of more than 38 per cent on global compensation — and that's been turned down by the union," he said. "So, time is running short."
But the union said the wage increases offered did not keep up with inflation, and they were unable to bridge the gap in negotiation.
