WestJet Airlines maintenance engineers strike before long weekend

WestJet airline signage is pictured at Vancouver's international airport in Richmond, British Columbia, Canada, February 5, 2019. REUTERS/Ben Nelms/File Photo

(Reuters) -Aircraft maintenance engineers and other technical operations employees at Canada's WestJet Airlines went on strike at the start of a long weekend on Friday, after rounds of negotiation failed to reach agreement on pay and working conditions.

WestJet expressed outrage at the strike during the Canada Day weekend, one of the country's most important holidays, saying it would hold the union "100% accountable for the unnecessary stress and costs incurred as a result."

Labour Minister Seamus O'Regan, seeking to avert the strike, had intervened on Thursday after WestJet began canceling flights, ordering Canada's industrial relations board to impose final binding arbitration in the dispute.

The Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association (AMFA) defended the strike in a statement on Friday, saying O'Regan's order was silent on "employees' fundamental right to strike," as guaranteed by the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, so "AMFA members' constitutional right to strike must prevail."

The union said it had served a strike notice on June 18 after 97% of its members voted to reject a tentative pay deal reached in May but that negotiators returned to the bargaining table two days later.

That round also failed, and the union served a second strike notice, with employees walking off the job at 7:30 p.m. ET (2330 GMT), AMFA said.

Calgary-based WestJet, which is backed by Onex Corp and competes with Air Canada, said severe travel disruption is to be expected if the strike is not called off immediately.

The airline said it was actively pursuing measures to minimize flight disruption, including asking for immediate action by the Canadian government.

AMFA said the airline had told the union it would not engage in further collective bargaining in Toronto, citing the government-imposed arbitration. The airline also rejected a request for continuation of collective bargaining in Calgary next week, the union said.

The union said its bargaining committee was standing by to continue discussions with the airline, adding they were available to resume collective bargaining over the weekend and into next week.

(Reporting by Nilutpal Timsina and Aatreyee Dasgupta in Bengaluru; Editing by Tasim Zahid, William Mallard and Himani Sarkar)