Air Canada employees continue to vote on tentative deal

Unionized Air Canada workers will continue to vote on a tentative deal reached between the union and the air carrier last week.

The union's executive unanimously supported the deal, but the 3,800 union members must still ratify it. Voting has been taking place all week and will end on Sunday. Results will be released on Monday.

The agreement includes wage increases, improvements to benefits and maintains the defined benefit pension plan for current Air Canada workers.

The issue of the pension plan for new hires will be sent to a mediation process. Should that process fail, the issue will be sent to an arbitrator.

Air Canada and the union, a Canadian Auto Workers local, came to the deal after the federal government introduced back-to-work legislation last week. When the two sides reached a tentative agreement, the legislation became moot.

"We were able to reach a negotiated settlement with Air Canada and it is with absolutely no thanks to the federal government who were only too happy to strip workers of their collective bargaining rights," said CAW president Ken Lewenza in a release.

"No worker or union member anywhere in the country should take this kind of extreme interference lightly. I would urge new federal Labour Minister Lisa Raitt to instead start acting in the best interest of both sides and allow parties to resolve their conflicts through the collective bargaining process."

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