Ten-Day Period To Follow The Appointment Of An Arbitrator

Air Canada and the Air Canada Pilots Association (ACPA) have agreed to re-commence negotiations. The parties have agreed to a 10-day negotiation period to begin following the appointment of an arbitrator by the Minister of Labour in accordance with the provisions of the Protecting Air Services Act. Air Canada and ACPA will ask that the arbitrator facilitate the negotiations process pursuant to section 31 of the Act that allows for negotiations to take place.

ACPA represents approximately 3,000 pilots employed by Air Canada, and its collective agreement expired on March 31, 2011. Air Canada and ACPA both said they will have no further comments during the course of these negotiations.

The pilots had voted in favor of a strike mandate back in February. In a news release at the time, ACPA said its pilots had been unable to freely negotiate a contract for more than a decade. Their last agreement froze their pay for more than two years and provided their airline with hundreds of millions of dollars in relief from the corporation`s pension funding obligations. "Air Canada pilots have been more than fair and reasonable, maintaining their professionalism throughout these difficult negotiations," the union said.

In March, the Canadian Industrial Relations Board intervened, saying the airline was too important to the national economy to allow it to shut down due to a labor dispute, and referred the two sides to arbitration.

FMI: www.aircanada.com, www.acpa.ca, www.cirb-ccri.gc.ca/index_eng.asp