Air Canada pilots will soon vote on a tentative four-year agreement reached over the weekend, avoiding a work stoppage after several weeks of brinksmanship tactics.
Terms of the tentative deal were not released, but the Air Line Pilots Association Int’l (ALPA), which represents pilots at Air Canada and its Rouge subsidiary, said it would generate about $1.9 billion in additional value.
“While it has been an exceptionally long road to this agreement, the consistent engagement and unified determination of our pilots have been the catalyst for achieving this contract,” said First Officer Charlene Hudy, chair of the Air Canada ALPA Master Executive Council (MEC).
“After several consecutive weeks of intense round-the-clock negotiations, progress was made on several key issues including compensation, retirement, and work rules.”
Air Canada and Air Canada Rouge flights will continue as normal while union members prepare for a vote, the airline said.
The deal must be ratified by a majority of voting members, who will “soon receive the tentative agreement for review,” ALPA said in a release.
The union did not provide a timeline for the vote, but Air Canada said it expects this will be completed “over the next month.”
Air Canada’s board of directors must also approve the agreement before it goes into effect.
The pilots have been seeking a massive increase to wages and benefits, to bring their compensation in line with colleagues at major airlines in the United States.
The airline said it could not meet the union’s demands, adding it previously offered a 30 percent wage increase, along with improvements to pensions and other benefits.
Air Canada pilots say their wages and quality-of-life have been effectively “frozen in time,” under a previous contract negotiated a decade ago.
That agreement expired in 2023, and the union has been in negotiations with Air Canada for 15 months. Both parties were in legal positions to issue either a strike or lockout notice on Sunday, but their last-minute deal averted that threat, at least temporarily.
The tentative deal follows an intense war of words that drew interest from travelers, industry watchers and business leaders across the country.
On the brink of a potential strike, Air Canada and key business associations urged the federal government to step in and force arbitration if the two sides couldn’t reach a deal.
ALPA answered with a call for Ottawa to respect workers’ rights, saying employers now see government intervention as an “enticing alternative to a negotiated settlement.”
“With recent federal intervention, employers are treating government as their silent partner and have included intervention as part of their bargaining strategy, to the detriment of Canadian workers,” said Capt Tim Perry, president of ALPA Canada.
“Moreover, government intervention in the collective bargaining process violates the constitutional rights and freedoms of Canadians.”
ALPA represents more than 5,200 pilots at Air Canada and Air Canada Rouge, after the former Air Canada Pilots Association (ACPA) merged with the international union in 2023.
Also in 2023, pilots at ALPA members Delta Airlines and United Airlines reportedly secured wage increases between 34 percent and 40 percent in agreements seen to have influenced negotiations at several other major carriers in Canada and the U.S.
WestJet pilots, also represented by ALPA, secured a reported 24 percent hourly raise over four years in 2023, according to a document viewed by the Reuters news agency.
Those concessions ratcheted up pressure on negotiations at Air Canada, and may also have influenced a new deal at its regional subsidiary WestJet Encore in mid-2024.
“This agreement, if ratified by the pilot group, would officially put an end to our outdated and stale decade-old, 10-year framework,” said FO Charlene Hudy from ALPA.
“The new agreement recognizes the contributions and professionalism of Air Canada’s pilot group, while providing a framework for the future growth of the airline,” said Air Canada in a statement.