Air Canada spokesman Christophe Hennebelle said the airline is committed to negotiations but faces wage demands from the Air Line Pilots Association that it cannot meet.
“The problem is that we are faced with unreasonable wage demands that ALPA refuses to moderate,” he said.
The union representing 5,200 pilots says Air Canada continues to post record profits and expects pilots to accept below-market compensation.
The airline and its pilots have been negotiating a contract for over a year. The pilots want to be paid a salary competitive with their American counterparts.
Both sides will be able to give 72 hours’ notice of a strike or lockout from Sunday. The airline said the notice would trigger its three-day reduction plan and would kick off a full stoppage from September 18.
Hennebelle said the airline is not calling for immediate government intervention but should be prepared to help avoid major disruption from the closure of an airline that carries more than 110,000 passengers a day.
“The government must be prepared to intervene and ensure that we do not get into that situation that affects the benefit of Canadians,” he said.
Numerous business groups gathered in Ottawa on Thursday to call for action — including binding arbitration — to prevent the economic disruption that would be caused by the airline’s closure.
“Arbitration can help parties reach a successful resolution and avoid all of the potential impacts we’re here to talk about today,” Candace Laing, president of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, said at a news conference.
Goldy Hyder, executive director of the Business Council of Canada, said in a statement that Canada cannot afford another major disruption to its transportation network.
“A disruption to work at Air Canada would have repercussions for our economy,” Hyder said in a statement.
Federal Labor Minister Steven MacKinnon said at a news conference Wednesday night that both sides should reach an agreement.
“There is no reason why these parties cannot reach a collective agreement,” he said.
“These parties should be in no doubt about my message to them today: get to work and get a deal done.”
In August, the Canadian government asked the country’s labour relations board to issue a return-to-work order to end the railway shutdown.
“There are significant differences between those two situations, but let’s leave it at that,” MacKinnon said.
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh said Thursday that his party would not support efforts to force pilots to return to work.
“If any back-to-work bill is proposed, we will oppose it,” he said.
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