In a surprise that shook Canada's aviation industry, WestJet, the country's second-largest airline, announced the cancellation of 407 flights, frustrating the travel plans of some 49,000 guests.
According to British media on June 30, the sudden disruption of domestic and foreign routes stemmed from strike action launched by the Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association (AMFA) on Friday night. The union said a strike was inevitable due to WestJet's "intransigence" in the negotiations.
The strike came just a day after the federal government stepped in and issued a ministerial order to force arbitration in an attempt to resolve the tense negotiations between the two sides that had been unable to reach an agreement for two weeks. The government's intervention was meant to prevent the current massive outage.
WestJet CEO Alexis von Hongsbroch blamed a "radical union from the United States," saying it was trying to expand its influence in Canada. Von Hongsbroch noted that negotiations with the unions had effectively ended after the government directed that the dispute be resolved through compulsory arbitration, and that he considered the strike "completely unjustified" at this point.
He added that the union rejected a contract offer that would make WestJet's aircraft maintenance "the highest paid in the country." However, for the crew involved in the strike, it was a struggle for respect and fair pay.
Outside Terminal 3 at Toronto's Pearson International Airport, Sean McVeigh, a WestJet aircraft maintenance engineer involved in the strike, said the strike was to force the company back to a "dignified negotiating table." While lamenting the inconvenience to guests, he stressed that it was WestJet's reluctance to show good faith at the negotiating table that led to guests facing flight cancellations or changes.
Affected passengers, Samin Sahan and Sammy Jane, had been disrupted from a trip they had been planning with their families to Calgary, which they had been planning for six to eight months.
Sahan mentioned that they had been notified earlier in the day that their flights had been rescheduled to Monday, but they still came to the airport to try to explain, only to be bogged down in uncertainty about their itinerary due to the strike.
He described the series of events as "hurting a lot of people and damaging the company's image, and affected passengers may never choose the airline again".
Jane simply said, "It's sad."
On the long weekend of Canada Day, the discordant notes brought about by the strike echoed under the sky that should have been bright with fireworks, which was not only an impact on air service, but also highlighted the deep contradictions between labor and management in the pursuit of fair treatment. The strike not only exposed the tension between airlines and employees, but also brought new challenges to the aviation industry, which is recovering from the pandemic.
The WestJet strike could be a turning point in the push for industrial relations reform in the aviation sector, or a wave in many disputes.