Air Canada employees walk off job

MONTREAL — Travellers arriving at Trudeau airport are being greeted by picket lines.

The same sight is visible at nine airports across the country after Air Canada's 3,800 sales and customer service employees walked off the job at midnight.

The company's managers said flights will continue to depart as scheduled, but that was not necessarily the case Tuesday morning in Montreal, where pilots refused to cross a picket line.

After several pilots spent about an hour standing in front of Trudeau airport, a bus arrived to ferry the pilots to another entrance where no union workers were demonstrating, and they walked inside.

Similar events happened throughout the day as flight crews reported for work.

According to Air Canada spokeswoman Isabelle Arthur, most flights are departing on time.

"As of 9:30 this morning out of 1,000 flights we dispatched 160 with a very good performance of 80 percent," said Arthur.

She went on to say that later this week she expects managers will get better at dealing with customers and as a result more flights will depart on time.

Sandra Cormier, speaking for the unionized workers on strike, disagreed with that assessment.

"We talked to the people who work on the ramp, we talked to people who work on the ramp, security, the flight attendants, the pilots, nothing is going to according to plan," Cormier said.

Dispute over defined benefits vs. defined contribution pensions

The main unresolved issues in the dispute are pensions and wages.

Management wants to eliminate new workers from the company pension plan.

The company braintrust say that with 26,000 workers, Air Canada does not have enough employees to sustain its 29,000 pensioners.

Under the suggested changes, new employees would sign onto a "defined contribution" pension that would see them collect a set, pre-determined lump sum at retirement.

Sandra Cormier, speaking for the 3,800 ticket agents, check-in and gate agents, call center and reservation workers, says the workers do not plan to sacrifice the "defined benefit" pension plan for newer workers.

"They want us to sacrifice the new hires," says Sandra Cormier. "We will not sacrifice them; it's not acceptable for us as a union."

She also noted that the union made concessions when the company restructured after being on the verge of bankruptcy in 2003 and does not want to go further.

Air Canada was forced into creditor protection in 2003 due in part to the cost of the company's pension deficit. That figure stands at $2.1 billion today.

Travellers slated to fly on the airline are urged to print their own boarding pass and to try to bring only carry-on luggage if possible, according to company spokesman Peter Fitzpatrick. Management would take over the tasks performed by the workers until the labour stoppage ends.

"Management has been trained to provide assistance at the airports that would be affected," the airline explained on its website.

However those flying should expect longer-than usual lineups.

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