Area travellers affected by Air Canada strike

Local MPs weigh in on labour strife

Former New Hamburg resident Ange Snider poses with her damaged suitcase after arriving home days after she was scheduled to thanks to the Air Canada flight attendants’ strike. Her luggage was delivered to her Nova Scotia home the day after she arrived. Contributed photo

By Lee Griffi, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

The negative effects of the Air Canada flight attendants’ strike were felt by many across Canada and even the globe, and one former New Hamburg resident had her own horror story to tell.

Ange Snider, who moved to Nova Scotia three years ago, flew to British Columbia to attend a work conference at Whistler and was scheduled to fly out of Vancouver on Friday.

“Air Canada sent me an email the day before saying my flight was at risk of being cancelled and I could rebook it for free between Aug. 21 and Sept. 12, which wasn’t going to happen. They said I could apply for a full refund.”

When Snider tried to rebook on her own, the prices of other flights had risen substantially.

“I would have gotten a $350 refund and paid between $1,000 and $2,000 on another airline. Friday morning, I got the message they were cancelling my flight and looking to rebook me on another carrier.”

She took a shuttle to the airport, and on the way, Snider received a text from Air Canada saying another flight wasn’t available and she would get a refund. She tracked down an Air Canada agent who provided her with a brochure on next steps.

“I said I am visually impaired, I can’t read it. She went into an office, came back and said I was booked on a WestJet flight leaving in an hour for Victoria, then from Victoria to Calgary and on to Halifax. I would have been home Saturday morning.”

Snider said while she was on the first flight, she received a text saying her WestJet flights were cancelled but being rebooked for Sunday. She would have had a six-hour layover in Calgary before hopping on a flight to Winnipeg with an eight-hour layover. She was not offered a hotel room, but that wasn’t the end of it.

“When I got to Victoria, I went to WestJet first because my booking was with them now, and they told me I wasn’t even in their system. I went over to Air Canada and I had a wonderful agent helping me. Although he failed, he tried. He was trying to get me one less layover and asked WestJet to release the ticket to them because it was sold to WestJet. Air Canada wouldn’t release it.”

To make an even longer story short, Snider flew back to Vancouver and stayed with a coworker for two nights, then flew back to Victoria Sunday morning on an Air Canada flight. She flew to Calgary after a seven-and-a-half-hour delay. The next plane took her to Winnipeg where she booked a hotel room for $450. Her frustration didn’t end there.

“I just made it through security when I received the first delay notification from WestJet – the first of, I think, seven. I was supposed to fly out at 8:34 a.m., but took off at 5:30 p.m.”

The Gazette asked her what she learned from her ordeal once she finally made it home.

“I’m never leaving Nova Scotia again,” she said.

To add to her frustration, Snider’s luggage didn’t come home with her, but while talking to the Gazette on the phone from Nova Scotia, her suitcase arrived – damaged to the point where it would be thrown in the garbage.

“It’s destroyed. Oh my God. It was brand new. It’s all cracked. Wow.”

Snider explained she understood the frustration of the striking flight attendants, but at the same time, she isn’t overly pleased they didn’t go back to work when ordered to by the Canadian government. She also said she will be seeking compensation for her ordeal from Air Canada and WestJet.

The Tavistock Athletics U15 fastball team earned a Canadian title at a tournament in Winkler, Man. Head coach Dave Nahrgang said they, too, were affected by the strike.

“Many families from multiple teams were travelling with Air Canada, and it was a discussion throughout the week. We were able to keep our rental vehicle and drive directly home through the U.S., which was a time saver. Others had to return to the Winnipeg airport and exchange rental vehicles. Some rental companies didn't allow U.S. travel, and the route through Canada is a few hours longer. Overall, we managed, but I know there are families out there who were probably stranded for a while.”

Federal Jobs Minister Patty Hajdu invoked Section 107 to compel binding arbitration between Air Canada and the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) representing flight attendants. The move aimed to prevent ongoing strike-related disruptions in air travel and supply chains.

Despite the back-to-work order, CUPE flight attendants defied it and continued their strike. This act of resistance prompted the Canadian Labour Congress (CLC) to declare that Section 107 is effectively dead, suggesting it's no longer a credible enforcement tool.

The Gazette reached out to both local members of parliament for their thoughts on the strike and subsequent government action. Kitchener-Conestoga Liberal MP Tom Louis said after months of negotiations, it was time for them to act.

“I think for Canadian families and businesses, there is so much disruption and uncertainty already with our lives, with the economy. Further disruptions would be devastating, so we said sit down and keep negotiating. We urged them to work on a fair deal.”

Oxford Conservative MP Arpan Khanna said he would have preferred to see a negotiated deal come without back-to-work legislation. He added the opposition brought forward a bill following the last election to deal with unpaid work.

“It would have helped solve some of the problems we saw over the past week. We are glad it’s finally over, but we had hundreds of thousands of travellers stranded. The government overplayed its hand a little bit. We have also seen labour problems with Canada Post and at the ports. The Liberal government has a history of causing these problems.”

Hajdu has announced a probe into why flight attendants weren’t being paid for work in the first place, something Khanna doesn’t put much stock into.

“They are trying to cover their tracks because they created a public-relations disaster with Bill 107. The Conservatives and the NDP were fighting for workers. We don’t support illegal strikes but we want to make sure workers are treated fairly.”

Louis added the probe will likely dig into the correlation between unpaid time and flight delays at Canada’s largest carrier.

“If they’re not paying people when there are delays, then there’s no pressure for them to reduce them. One of the benefits that I hope comes out of it is Air Canada running more efficiently with fewer delays.”