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More flight cancellations over long weekend due to strike: WestJet – Kelowna News

Posted on by angelo

A sudden strike by WestJet’s mechanics union is disrupting the plans of more than 49,000 travellers, including those arriving or departing from airports in Kelowna, Kamloops and Penticton.

The Calgary-based airline has already cancelled a total of 407 flights over the weekend in an effort to “maintain stability.” As of Sunday morning, 17 WestJet flights arriving at Kelowna International Airport throughout the day are listed as cancelled, along with 15 departing flights.

These include flights to and from Calgary, Edmonton, Vancouver, Regina, Victoria and Toronto.

Cancellations also extended to Kamloops, with three WestJet flights to and from Calgary listed as cancelled so far Sunday at YKA, and Penticton, where two flights to and from Calgary were also cancelled.

Sunday’s cancellations follow earlier canceled flights at YLW and YKA on Saturday. Of the 407 flights canceled so far nationwide, 282 of them took place on Saturday.

The travel disruptions come after members of the Fraternal Association of Aircraft Mechanics walked off the job Friday afternoon, saying “WestJet’s refusal to negotiate with the union made a strike inevitable.”

The pressure tactic comes after union members rejected a deal with WestJet earlier this month and after two weeks of tense negotiations between the two sides that resulted in the federal government stepping in and forcing WestJet and the union into binding arbitration.

AMFA management published a letter from the Canada Industrial Relations Board regarding its decision in which it states that the ministerial referral “does not have the effect of suspending the right to strike or lockout.”

WestJet said it is “extremely outraged by these actions and will hold AMFA fully accountable for the unnecessary stress and costs that result.”

Federal Labour Minister Seamus O’Regan, who said the Canada Industrial Relations Board’s order was “clearly inconsistent” with the directions he had provided, intervened again Saturday, asking both sides to work together with the board to reach an agreement.

– with files from The Canadian Press