WestJet says it may start cancelling flights on Thursday as the airline faces a possible strike by its mechanics the day after.
The airline says the Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association has issued a strike notice that could mean a work stoppage as early as 5:30 p.m. (MT) on Friday.
The notice comes after the union called off its strike plans last week and returned to the negotiating table.
The airline issued a lockout notice in response to the possible strike.
Early Wednesday afternoon, WestJet CEO Alexis von Hoensbroech said that barring a last-minute resolution, the airline could begin to cancel flights as early as Thursday..
“First cancellations can be expected for tomorrow,” he said.
“(WestJet) guests should call the airline to check for their flight.”
He said they were still working through the plan, but the initial number of cancellations would likely be “a double-digit number, that will grow as we approach the strike deadline Friday.”
He added that the airline would be able to maintain a number of flights in the event of a strike, serving international and continental routes. The most likely impacted routes would be domestic and Caribbean routes, and others within the North American corridor.
The airline cancelled dozens of flights last week before contract talks resumed.
Von Hoensbroech praised the airline’s mechanics, but maintained that they are the best-paid in the industry and have been presented with an offer that would see salaries increase 22 per cent over four years.
“We want a deal with our mechanics,” he said. “They do tremendus job — and we pay them well. We have given them an industry-leading offer.”
He said the average salary for a WestJet mechanic was currently around $109,000, with the top ones earning between $150,000 and $170,000 a year.
The new offer would make the mechanics the best-paid “by far” in the country, he added, “but they don’t seem to like that.
“They said they want an industry-changing contract and not an industry-leading contract and that’s obviously divorced from reality.,” he said. “We would never sacrifice our future in order to avoid short-term pain.”
“Right now, I don’t see what a resolution could look like, unless the union becomes reasonable,” he added. “We have put out our offer and it’s very strong, We are ready to sit down with the union and to do anything that’s reasonable — and we are generous — we have a great track record of coming up with reasonable agreements with our union partners, but this union is different.”
He said the mechanics are being represented by a U.S. union trying to make inroads into Canada at the expense of 250,000 Canadians planning to travel on WestJet this weekend.
“They deliberately chose this weekend to create maximum damage,” he said.
Union members voted overwhelmingly to reject a tentative deal earlier this month and have voiced opposition to WestJet’s request for arbitration.
With files from The Canadian Press