Air Canada Flight Attendants Reject Offer

Air Canada’s flight attendants turned down the airline’s latest contract offer, threatening to ground Canada’s largest carrier as soon as Thursday. With 75% of the attendants’ union membership voting, 89.2% opted to reject Air Canada’s proposal. The union representing the 5,000 attendants has been embroiled in a dispute with the company over pensions. The flight attendants cited improvements in retirement income and working conditions and no rollbacks in the current contract as key issues yet to be addressed by the company. Air Canada posted $170 million in operating losses in 1998, mainly because of a crippling, 13-day strike by its 2,100 pilots in late summer. The company said it has taken measures to minimize problems should the attendants walk off the job.