Air Canada employees are back to work today after a tentative agreement on pay and pensions was reached yesterday, ending a three-day strike and 12 weeks of negotiations.
CAW president Ken Lewenza said the new agreement is an important achievement for the 3,800 CAW members at Air Canada who resisted company demands for major pension concessions.
Lewenza said the new agreement covers wages, pensions, benefits and all other key issues in bargaining. The contentious issue of providing new hires with a DC plan, rather than a DB pension as current employees and retirees receive, will be sent to binding arbitration at which time the union will present the case for continuing DB plans.
The existing DB plans remain unchanged until Jan.1, 2013, when there will be some “modifications,” Lewenza said. Although he declined to provide details of the wage increases until the ratification meetings he did say “the wage package was good.”
The Globe and Mail is reporting that under the new four-year deal CAW members will receive wage increases of 2% in each of the first three years and a 3% increase in the final year.
“We are very pleased to have reached a tentative agreement with the CAW. The agreement will help ensure the long-term sustainability of Air Canada while maintaining industry-leading compensation and benefits for our employees,” said Duncan Dee, executive vice-president and chief operating officer.