Air Canada flight attendants reject wage agreement

Air Canada flight attendants overwhelmingly rejected a wage agreement Saturday, with a bitter wage dispute now expected to be worked out through mediation as workers cannot take further legal strike action

Air Canada flight attendants overwhelmingly rejected a wage agreement Saturday, with a bitter wage dispute now expected to be worked out through mediation as workers cannot take further legal strike action.

Flight attendants at Air Canada and Air Canada Rouge voted 99.1% against ratifying the company’s wage offer, the union said.

Negotiators struck a tentative deal on Aug. 19 to end a four-day strike that stranded half a million passengers, after flight attendants defied Canadian government efforts to end the strike and the country’s largest carrier was forced back to the bargaining table.

Air Canada and the Canadian Union of Public Employees agreed that no labor disruption could be initiated and therefore there will be no strike or lockout, so flights will continue to operate, the airline said.

The wage portion of the deal will be referred to mediation and, if no agreement is reached at that stage, to arbitration, the airline said.