Air Canada Wins? (Toronto Star/saturday)

[Kip Powick]

Air Canada has won an order from the Canada Industrial Relations Board, declaring a “sickout” by pilots to be an illegal job action and requiring them to go back to work.

The airline feared the high number of bookoffs, which it called an illegal job action, would continue into the weekend, potentially causing more disruptions.

Travellers flying Air Canada out of Pearson International Airport will continue to feel the effects of Friday’s “sickout,” but officials say the situation is returning to normal.

“Everything’s running normally,” said Air Canada spokesperson Peter Fitzpatrick. “There are still a couple cancellations today as a result of yesterday simply because planes were not in position for startup this morning.”

Fourteen Air Canada flights travelling through Pearson Airport were cancelled as of Saturday at 9 a.m. Several others were delayed.

The airline did not ask for sanctions, just for pilots to come to work and for the union to remind them that not doing so breaches the labour code.

About 75 flights were cancelled Friday, mostly to and from Pearson International Airport. No international flights were impacted.

A dozen members of a Brampton karate school, headed for a tournament in Calgary, were forced to find alternate routes Friday, some going via Vancouver and others on WestJet Airlines through Hamilton and Kitchener.

“It took a lot of rigmarole,” said Lee-Ann Bouchard whose 8-year-old daughter, Olivia, is participating in her first out-of-province tournament. “We are pretty perturbed.”

The Toronto Rock lacrosse team, scheduled to play in Denver on Saturday, scrambled to catch a flight to Chicago from Toronto’s island airport and then another connecting flight, arriving late Friday night.

Usually, Air Canada says 50 to 70 pilots book off sick on any given day at this time of year, but by mid-afternoon Thursday, 115 pilots had booked off.

At 8:10 a.m. Friday, 152 had booked off.

The delays were far fewer than during a March 23 wildcat strike by baggage handlers and machinists

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But Air Canada argued bookoffs can have a ripple effect if pilots are scheduled to work on consecutive days involving layovers. As other pilots are called in to replace them, it impacts the number of pilots hitting their monthly flying limit.

Paul Strachan, president of the Air Canada Pilots Association, said the union did not call for job action but will comply with any orders.

“We didn’t sanction it. We did not ask for it. I can’t even verify it,” he said, noting if pilots feel unfit they have a duty not to fly.

“If it’s true, it’s not something that was unpredictable,” said Strachan. “I told the corporation that. I told the government that.

“If you stomp on people’s rights like this, if you put them in a corner, they may act out on their own.”

He argued the anger stems from the federal government’s intervention in the collective bargaining process, referring to Labour Minister Lisa Raitt’s decision last month to block a lockout in the pilots’ dispute and a strike by baggage handlers and machinists.

The government then moved to bring in back-to-work legislation, ordering the contracts to be settled through arbitration, prohibiting any strike or lockout.

The ongoing labour unrest is hurting the struggling airline, which must act quickly to repair the relationship with its employees, said George Smith, a fellow in the School of Policy Studies at Queen’s University and former management negotiator for Air Canada.

“I think they are harming their brand. Pretty soon, the damage will be irreparable,” he said. “Management needs to hit the reset button.”

He believes the airline should find a way to declare peace with its employees. “Happy employees equal happy customers equals good business,” Smith said.

“The sad reality is Air Canada responds with a legal move which makes the relationship worse,” he said, suggesting restarting negotiations with its pilots given arbitration hasn’t begun yet.

“It does not mean you give away the ship, or hand the keys to the employees,” Smith said.

The company appears headed toward a possible bankruptcy again, he said, noting labour unrest creates uncertainty, which affects bookings.

Business travellers are hesitating, and as people plan summer holidays, the peak season for airlines, they may steer clear of Canada’s largest airline, he added.

Air Canada shares are now a penny stock, closing unchanged Friday at 86 cents, and its market capitalization is about $245 million.

Fuel prices continue to rise, operating costs are high, especially with pricey landing fees in Canada, and the poor economy has hurt both business and leisure travel.

The company’s obligations for its defined benefit pensions remain high — at $13 billion but the aggregate solvency deficit at the start of the 2011 was $2.16 billion.

[FA@AC]

“I think they are harming their brand. Pretty soon, the damage will be irreparable,” he said. “Management needs to hit the reset button.”

A better idea would be for the BOD to hit the reset button and replace senior management.

Damage to the brand? No kidding. It's closer to destruction of the brand. Some things they have destroyed deliberately (labour relations, customer loyalty through the gutting of Aeroplan benefits), and other things they have allowed to fall apart either through ineptitude or neglect. It's time for them to go.