Trudeau says government will not intervene in Air Canada dispute with pilots

OTTAWA (Reuters) – The Canadian government will not intervene to end a dispute between Air Canada and its pilots and intends instead to pressure both sides to avert a strike, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Friday.

A stoppage could start as soon as Sept. 18. Air Canada and its low-cost subsidiary Air Canada Rouge together operate nearly 670 flights per day, and a shutdown could affect 110,000 passengers daily as well as freight carriage.

Airline and business groups want the Liberal government to force the two sides into binding arbitration before a strike starts, an idea that Trudeau dismissed.

“I’m not going to put my thumb on the scale on either side. It is up to Air Canada and the pilots’ union to do the work to figure out how to make sure that they are not hurting millions of Canadians,” he told reporters in Quebec.

“Every time there’s a strike, people say ‘Oh, you’ll get the government to come in and fix it’ – we’re not going to do that. We believe in collective bargaining, and we’re going to keep pushing people to do it.”

Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon met both the company and the union on Thursday. Both sides are still far apart on the question of wages.