Air Canada Flight Attendants Vote to Strike

Nearly 7,000 Air Canada employees could hit the picket lines as soon as next Wednesday.

Air Canada could be facing its second strike of the year as early as next Wednesday after the air carrier's 6,800 flight attendants voted to strike if they can't agree on a new contract in the next week. Nearly 98 per cent of flight attendants voted last night to strike should the deal not be struck, giving the Canadian Union of Public Employees a strong mandate to hit the picket lines next week. The chief point of contention is over pensions, as Air Canada wants new employees to pay into a new defined contribution benefit plan instead of the existing defined benefit pension packages. The nation's biggest airline says it will reduce service but still keep as many flights as possible on schedule. Given how the Conservative government legislated striking postal workers back to work earlier this year, though, it's entirely possible that the flight attendants will be ordered back to work should the strike drag on for too long. Ticketing and customer service agents briefly went on strike in June of this year, with the labour action coming to an end just as the Tories threatened to legislate them back to work.