Frustrated and confused travellers remained supportive throughout 1-day Air Canada strike

It’s was a travel nightmare for thousands on Saturday as Air Canada flights were cancelled and 10,000 flight attendants walked off the job overnight.

After a string of silent demonstrations earlier this week and flights progressively cancelled as of Thursday for Air Canada, the fears of a looming strike became a grim reality for travellers when negotiations between the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) and Air Canada management failed.

There was a scene of confusion at the Montreal Pierre-Elliott Trudeau International airport today as disgruntled passengers with cancelled flights flooded the arrivals gate, ignoring Air Canada’s request not to come to the airport if their flight was cancelled, as they stressed to find another way home.

“Right now we are literally stranded in Montreal, trying to figure out the best way to get to Edmonton,” said Nesreen MacDonald.

A traveler from Ireland, saying, “I feel very hardened if I’m being quite honest. I feel that I haven’t been looked after by Air Canada. I feel that when I booked my flight there was no warning. I am from Ireland, I booked my flight, I had no knowledge of any strike action pending until Wednesday.”

While Air Canada made accommodations for some travellers, many were only scheduled five days from now on Aug 20th – forcing travellers to either stay on hold for hours on the phone or search on their laptops to make their own accommodations, on their own dime.

“We’re now looking at Via Rail because waiting until Wednesday is not the best option. They said that they would only compensate for one night at a hotel and that we would have to do a claim file to try to get any reimbursement if we’re paying out of pocket,” said MacDonald.

Nicole Finelli said, “We were lucky that we were able to get on a different airline in order to get back today.”

Adding, “It’s very frustrating because our flight time changes, we’re now not flying into the Toronto Island airport, we’re flying into Pearson.”

Vice President of the Union Local 4091, Julie Potvin, told CityNews that years ago, they accepted a pay cut to help when the company went under bankruptcy protection, leaving them under minimum federal wage, which she says they are now addressing as some of their points during negotiations.

“What we want is to bring our passengers back, and we want to have a tentative agreement that we can vote on, and we’re hopeful that we’ll be back in the air shortly,” said Potvin.

“Obviously, the company has been talking about compensation, we’ve been talking about wage increases and the unpaid work, there seems to be no way to bridge that gap at this time, so I think that’s what the contentious part is.”

But despite the stress and grievances, Air Canada employees saw an outpouring of support from travelers for the strike, which lasted almost a day before Jobs Minister Patty Hajdu directed the Canada Industrial Relations Board to order both parties to resolve the dispute through binding arbitration and resume operations.

“They should be paid when they wait in the flight, that’s a very valid point,” said one traveler.

Finelli adding, “Living in Canada is expensive and they need a fair wage, I support them a thousand per cent.”