For Air Canada's pilots, pay is the sticking point

Labour minister met with union, airline and urged them to reach a deal

- JOSH RUBIN

Charlene Hudy has a simple message for Canadians worried about the possibility of a strike by Air Canada pilots next week: She doesn’t want one either.

“I don’t want to be here. I wish I were being interviewed about a deal we’d just agreed to, instead of opening up a strike centre,” said Hudy, a first officer at Air Canada, who’s also chair of the Air Line Pilot Association division representing pilots at the country’s biggest airline.

As of 12:01 a.m. Wednesday, Hudy and her colleagues will be in a legal strike position. While there’s been some progress at the bargaining table during the last 15 months, there’s still a substantial gap, especially on the sticky issue of wages, Hudy said.

“We still need to see some significant moves from Air Canada at the table to get to a deal that is really worthy of the pilot group’s consideration,” Hudy told the Star in an ALPA office while her colleagues ran a phone bank speaking to Air Canada pilots around the world about logistics if there’s a strike or the airline locks them out.

Federal Labour Minister Steve MacKinnon met separately with each side Thursday, and called on them to reach a deal.

“There’s no reason why these parties can’t work together and get a deal done,” MacKinnon posted on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.

A chart provided by the union shows some eye-popping wage differences across the border, with U.S. pilots making more than double than their Air Canada counterparts in some categories. Even in categories where there’s less of a gap, it’s still substantial: For captains with 12 years experience flying Boeing 777s, pilots at United, Delta and American Airlines make 76 per cent more in salary than their Air Canada counterparts.