The Canadian Union of Public Employees reached a tentative wage deal with WestJet on Monday for 4,400 flight attendants and ended a strike that had cancelled hundreds of flights. [1] WestJet did not publish the terms. The union said it would share details with members before a ratification vote. [1] Friday did not produce that vote.
The paper's Thursday major said the ratification vote was still pending. Friday's completed record is the same unpaid ground: a tentative text, no public ballot result, no published pay table. Business desks closed the strike on Monday. The ballot is still the story.
CUPE president Alia Hussain said the agreement evolves the flight-credit system by recognizing more of the work cabin crew must perform and by raising compensation for that work. [1] Attendants had struck Sunday after talks failed. They wanted pay from check-in to clock-out, not mostly for time when the aircraft is moving. [1] That is the North American cabin-crew fight Air Canada's four-day strike last August already advertised.
WestJet, about 30 percent of Canada's domestic market and majority-owned by Onex, had offered a 13 percent wage increase this year, 2.5 percent a year through 2029, and extra pay for all hours worked equal to another 12 percent. [1] Cirium counted 615 cancellations through August 4. The airline said about 250,000 travelers lost flights on a three-day holiday weekend. [1] Jobs Minister Patty Hajdu welcomed a deal reached by the parties. [1]
A reader who only watches CNBC's strike-over headline will think the gate is staffed. A reader who only watches crew channels will know the credit system is still a vote. Friday did not count that vote. It left the tentative page unsigned by the people who have to fly it.
Flight credit is the industry's polite name for unpaid boarding, delays, and sitting at the gate. Hussain said the tentative text recognizes more of that work. [1] She did not publish the minutes. WestJet did not publish the dollars. A ratification vote without a public table is how airlines close a news cycle and leave the argument in a union hall.
WestJet flies to destinations in the United States, the Caribbean, Central America, and Europe. [1] A holiday-weekend cancellation count of about 250,000 travelers is the passenger half of the same fight. [1] The company previously offered extra pay for all hours worked equal to another 12 percent. [1] Whether the tentative text meets the check-in-to-clock-out demand is the vote. Friday still has not counted it.
A reader who followed Air Canada's four-day strike last August already knows how a tentative page can reopen if members reject the ground-time math. [1] Hajdu welcomed a deal reached by the parties. [1] Welcoming is not ratifying. The ticker closed the strike. The ballot is unpaid ground time.
The union represents 4,400 attendants. [1] That is a ratification universe, not a press conference. WestJet did not disclose details of the tentative agreement. [1] CUPE said it would share details with members ahead of the vote. [1] Friday is still ahead of the vote. A major that pretends the strike is the whole story is writing Monday's headline four days late.
Attendants across the United States and Canada have been challenging a pay structure that mostly pays when the aircraft is in motion. [1] WestJet is the second-largest carrier in Canada. [1] A pending ballot at that scale is still a business story. The desks that closed it Monday were early.
-- THEO KAPLAN, San Francisco