The order requires the carrier’s 3,000 pilots to comply with the law, and cease any work stoppages – a development that came after Air Canada warned travellers of flight disruptions, saying some pilots walked off the job. More than 50 Air Canada flights were cancelled across the carrier’s system on Friday.
“The impact has been primarily on narrow-body aircraft serving domestic and transborder destinations. Our focus is on moving as many affected passengers as possible” through with measures such as deploying larger planes and adding flights, Air Canada spokesman Peter Fitzpatrick said.
The country’s largest airline had applied on Friday afternoon to the Canada Industrial Relations Board to obtain a declaration of an unlawful strike being staged. Air Canada’s legal manoeuvre meant that it revived its previous application to the labour board, stemming from flight disruptions blamed in part on pilots calling in sick during the March 17-18 weekend.
Air Canada had suspended its original complaint against the Air Canada Pilots Association for allegedly authorizing members to call in sick on March 17-18, but given the new disruptions, the carrier sought and won a declaration that Friday’s actions by some pilots are illegal – part of a “97 squared” group displaying defiance.
The group’s name refers to ACPA members who approved a strike mandate in February. Of those pilots who cast ballots, 97 per cent voted in favour of a strike mandate, and the voter turnout was also 97 per cent.
The labour board’s ruling opens the door to potentially stiff fines in future. Employees who defy the law each face fines of up to $1,000 a day, while union officials each face levies of up to $50,000 a day. ACPA also could be fined up to $100,000 a day, if the union is found to have contravened the law.
Friday’s disruptions follow last month’s chaos, when ground crew went on a 14-hour wildcat strike. On March 23, Air Canada delayed 200 flights and cancelled another 210 trips in moves that disrupted one-third of the airline's network across North America. An estimated 24,000 customers got caught in the snarls, or nearly one-quarter of Air Canada's daily traffic.
On March 17, Air Canada’s internal data showed 40 cancelled flights, including 31 allegedly due to pilots phoning in sick. On March 18, the airline’s statistics showed 59 cancelled flights, of which 30 are attributed to pilots’ absence.
“As well, the number of pilots available for make-up or draft work” from March 1-26 tumbled to 50 people, compared with 285 pilots being available to work on standby in the same period in 2011, according to Air Canada.
The combination of pilots phoning in sick and the depletion of staff on the on-call flying list forced cancellations, the airline submits.
On Thursday, the chairman of ACPA urged members to report for work on Friday and ignore “a small group” of pilots who wanted colleagues to call in sick to show dissatisfaction with management.
Captain Jean-Marc Bélanger said union leaders and airline managers strongly disagree with the tactics of the group.
Capt. Bélanger said he had been informed by Captain Eddy Doyle, director of flying operations at Air Canada, that some pilots planned to stage an illegal job action by “booking off sick when in fact they are fit to fly.”
Air Canada said Friday that it has “revised its ticketing policy for customers booked on flights today and tomorrow,” adding that customers wishing to make alternative travel plans “can do so without penalty, space permitting, by using Air Canada’s self-service rebooking tool at aircanada.com, on their mobile device, or by contacting Air Canada reservations by phone.”
The carrier added that “due to illegal job action by some Air Canada pilots, Air Canada is experiencing delays and some cancellations of flights.”
Last month, federal Labour Minister Lisa Raitt referred two disputes to the Canada Industrial Relations Board, a manoeuvre that blocked 8,600 ground crew from going on strike on March 12 as planned, as well as thwarting management’s notice to lock out 3,000 pilots on the same day. As a precautionary measure, Parliament passed back-to-work legislation in mid-March.
“It is our duty to advise all pilots that ACPA’s right to strike and Air Canada’s right to lock out its employees are suspended until a new collective agreement takes effect under the arbitration procedures of the Protecting Air Service Act,” Capt. Bélanger said in a newsletter to pilots.
Ms. Raitt said that by “introducing and passing back-to-work legislation, we put the public interest and the Canadian economy first to ensure that Canadians can continue to fly.”
She said a process is in place for the two sides to reach a binding contract through arbitration. “Illegal work stoppages have disturbed and disrupted travel for Canadians. We encourage the parties to resolve their internal disputes and restore the confidence of the travelling public,” Ms. Raitt said in a statement.
But the “97 squared” group of dissenting pilots said they’re unhappy about how management has been treating Capt. Bélanger and Captain Paul Strachan, ACPA’s president.
Management has reprimanded Capt. Strachan for making allegedly “reckless” remarks about plane safety during a TV interview last month, when he noted the shutdown of Aveos Fleet Performance Inc., which had done aircraft maintenance for Air Canada.
“The government has essentially handed the corporation an insurance policy against industrial action,” the dissenting pilots said in a memo obtained by The Globe and Mail. “The corporation has used that perceived insurance in earnest, trampling on our profession and our very being with impunity. What the corporation will need to be made aware of is that it has no such insurance policy.”
Ottawa has “draconian legislation that removes your right to withdraw your services in order to protect your job,” the angry group of pilots added in a separate e-mail with “We Are Air Canada” in the subject field.
Capt. Strachan said in an interview Friday that “the employer is stonewalling and the government is seen to be in cahoots with the corporation, so pilots feel isolated. Some pilots are taking matters into their own hands, and ACPA doesn’t condone this.”
The disruptions due to the wildcat strike by hundreds of members of the machinists union became far more widespread than the delays and cancellations that hit Toronto’s Pearson International Airport on the March 17-18 weekend, when a combination of fog, a temporarily closed runway and some Air Canada pilots calling in sick ruined some flight schedules.
Original Article
Source: Globe
Author: BRENT JANG
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