MONTREAL, Oct. 21 (UPI) -- The third threat of a strike by Air Canada's 6,800 flight attendants has been nixed by an agreement to binding arbitration, the airline and union said.
The dispute that centers largely on the airline's plan to launch a discount airline with lower wages for Air Canada flight crews has nearly come to a strike twice. However, the Conservative government intervened in both cases, once threatening back-to-work legislation and earlier this week calling for a federal labor board to intervene.
The airline and the Canadian Union of Public Employees issued statements Thursday saying they had agreed to go into binding arbitration.
"Under the terms of the agreement, both parties will submit outstanding issues to a process with the final and binding decision to be issued by no later than Nov. 7, 2011," the airline said in a release from its Montreal headquarters. "By agreeing to this process, the parties are also bound by the Labor Code requirement that no strike or lockouts may occur."
CUPE President Paul Moist said in a statement because of the government's "threats" that "blocked the legal right to strike," the union agreed to deal.
"In this context, arbitration is the best option," he said.
The flight attendants have been without a contract since the end of March.
