(Calgary) WestJet says it has cancelled at least 150 flights starting Saturday after the airline’s aircraft maintenance union announced it had gone on strike hours earlier.
The Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association (AMFA) announced that its members began striking around 7:30 p.m. Eastern time Friday because “the airline’s unwillingness to negotiate with the union made the strike inevitable.”
The move comes as the federal government on Thursday ordered binding arbitration to resolve the dispute between the airline and its mechanics.
For two weeks, difficult discussions have been held with the union with a view to a new collective agreement.
Officials with Calgary-based WestJet blasted the mechanics’ union’s decision Friday, saying they are “extremely outraged by these actions” and saying they will hold AMFA “fully responsible for the unnecessary stress and costs that result.” “.
Early Saturday, WestJet President Diederik Pen said in a statement that the strike “serves no one” and that “the scale of this deliberate disruption is devastating.”
On Thursday, WestJet said that AMFA was complying with the arbitration order and that as a result, “there will be no strike or lockout and the airline will no longer cancel flights.”
The change of position that took place on Friday seemed to shock travelers and executives alike.
“Is my Sunday flight in danger? “, asked Andrew Wheatley, of Edmonton, in a message on the social network X. “I support a union’s right to strike if it is legal. And I hope he gets a good deal. But at the same time, I have to be at work Monday morning,” he added.
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In an update to its members, the union negotiating committee referred to a Canada Industrial Relations Board order that does not explicitly prohibit strikes or lockouts as the tribunal begins arbitration following Labour Minister Seamus O’Regan’s directive Wednesday.
This isn’t the first time WestJet has been on the brink of a strike. Last year, the airline avoided a strike in the early hours of the May long weekend, but it led to the cancellation of more than 230 flights and forced thousands of people to change their travel plans.