BY NED DMYTRYSHYN AND MARY ELLEN MARUS
VANCOUVER, British Columbia - After grounding Canada's
largest commercial airline with a 13-day strike, 2,100 Air Canada
pilots voted 83 percent in favor of accepting a contract offer.
"We won major concessions on safety and quality of life," said
Jean Marc Bélanger, chairman of the Air Canada Pilots'
Association (ACPA).
The pilots strike was costly for Air Canada. The September 12 Globe and Mail reported, "Analysts estimate the strike cost the Montreal-based airline upwards of CAN$200 million pretax wiping out any chance of profit in the third quarter while the turbulent economy may do the same in the fourth." In an interview with the Militant, Air Canada Pilots Association representative Ken Fales was asked whether the strike was worth it. He replied, "Our flight operators were not respecting the agreement. Hopefully, we've renewed the dialogue. If not, we'll do this again in 18 months." Fales added that training-to-standard rules are an important gain in the contract. The onus is now more on the company to train pilots properly.
Labor contracts for three major unions representing 17,000 workers at Air Canada come up for negotiation over the next nine months. About 5,000 flight attendants organized by the Canadian Union of Public Employees plan to start bargaining next month, 4,000 ticket agents represented by the Canadian Auto Workers begin negotiations in February 1999, and 8,000 maintenance and ramp workers represented by the International Association of Machinists will open talks by June.
The pilots' two-year agreement includes a 4 percent wage increase retroactive to April 1998 and 5 percent starting in April 1999. The increase is what the company offered before the strike. The agreement ends in April of the year 2000; the company had demanded a five-year contract.
The hours of flying time, which was another issue in the strike, remain the same: 78-80 hours a month except the regional jet CL65, which is 85 and will be gradually reduced to 80 hours by the year 2000. Pilots will get extra help on long flights, their training will improve, they can organize their schedules a bit better, and they won additional protection from layoffs.
The pilots were fighting for work rule changes that directly affect flight safety. Actual working time, including flight preparation and training, is double the 80 hours flying time. Some pilots have duty time of more than 85 hours, well over the industrial average of 75-78 hours per month. For the company this means a leaner work force; for the pilots it means increased fatigue. The ACPA members were fighting against company threats to cut training time on simulation equipment and for increased flight crews for longer flights to ensure safety. Before the strike, two pilots did both take-off and landing on a 14-hour flight.
Air Canada pilots made concessions in the 1990s along with other airline workers, when the company cried poverty. In 1997 the company posted a $427 million profit.
Ned Dmytryshyn and Mary Ellen Marus are members of IAM Lodge 764.