Canadian Pilots to Stage Massive Strike over Payment

About 5,200 pilots in Canada announced that they will go on strike for 3 days starting on Sunday if their salary conditions are not improved.

These pilots want attention to their working conditions. It is expected that this strike will disrupt Canadian flights this week.

Canadian Airlines has announced that flights may be suspended for three days, and the possibility of shutting down all airport activities is considered.

The Canadian government will not intervene to end a dispute between Air Canada and its pilots and intends instead to pressure both sides to avert a strike, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Friday, Reuters reported.

A stoppage could start as soon as Sept. 18. Air Canada and its low-cost subsidiary Air Canada Rouge together operate nearly 670 flights per day, and a shutdown could affect 110,000 passengers daily as well as freight carriage.

Airline and business groups want the Liberal government to force the two sides into binding arbitration before a strike starts, an idea that Trudeau dismissed.

"I'm not going to put my thumb on the scale on either side. It is up to Air Canada and the pilots' union to do the work to figure out how to make sure that they are not hurting millions of Canadians," he told reporters in Quebec.