Air Canada pilots resist mediation

SENIORITY AT ISSUE

Air Canada pilots who flew for the former Canadian Airlines say they will boycott a mediation process to resolve a long- standing dispute over pilot seniority issues at the airline. The group said yesterday it will not participate in mediation efforts agreed to by Air Canada and the Air Canada Pilots Association because doing so would be tantamount to trading the seniority rankings of 1,200 former Canadian Airlines pilots for 32 new long- range Boeing aircraft.

“This mediation is the result of the airline being blackmailed,” Rob McInnis, an Air Canada captain who represents the airline’s former Canadian Airlines pilots, said in an interview from Ottawa.

Mr. McInnis said Air Canada, a division of ACE Aviation Holdings Inc., is trying to appease some 2,200 so- called Original Air Canada (OAC) pilots who hijacked a union vote in June to express their dissatisfaction with the airline’s pilot seniority lists. The vote was needed for the airline to go ahead with plans to purchase state-oftheaircraft from Boeing Co., worth an estimated $ 6- billion.

The OAC pilots said they used the vote on working conditions relating to the new Boeing 777 and 787 models to draw attention to the unfair treatment of former Air Canada pilots following the merger of Air Canada and Canadian in 2000. Specifically, the OAC pilots argue the merger of the two airlines’ respective pilot seniority lists heavily favoured the former Canadian Airlines employees.

Pilot seniority is used to determine pay, working conditions and the type of aircraft flown.

In an effort to move ahead with the Boeing purchase, Air Canada and the pilots’ union agreed last month to have Toronto lawyer and mediator Martin Teplitsky make recommendations on the seniority question, which are then subject to the approval of the Canadian Industrial Relations Board. Meanwhile, the outstanding labour issues between Air Canada and its pilots over the operation of the new planes will go to a separate binding arbitration.

Mr. McInnis said the former Canadian pilots are in favour of the new jets, but not at the expense of reopening the seniority question.