Aviation Boeing strike: Union announces resumption of talks

According to the union, talks between management and striking employees at US aircraft manufacturer Boeing will resume at the beginning of the week.

The negotiations will continue on Tuesday with the participation of the US arbitration board FMCS, the IAM union announced on Saturday evening (local time). The workers had previously rejected by an overwhelming majority an agreement already reached on wage increases and walked off the job for the first time in 16 years.

The arbitration board FMCS also spoke of new talks at the beginning of next week. Boeing initially made no statement.

Thousands of employees on the US West Coast went on strike on Friday night. Employees had rejected the employer's already negotiated offer of a 25 percent wage increase with 94.6 percent of the vote, with 96 percent of union members voting in favor of the strike.

The last strike at Boeing in 2008 lasted 57 days. Since then, the collective agreement that expired last Thursday and whose successor has been under dispute for months between the company management and the IAM union has also been in force.

No strike at Air Canada

The management of Canadian airline Air Canada reached an agreement with its pilots on Sunday, averting a strike at the last minute. Hundreds of flights would otherwise have been canceled in the coming days.

Air Canada announced that it had reached an agreement in principle with the Air Line Pilots Association (Alpa) union, which represents more than 5200 pilots and with which the company management had been negotiating for 15 months. Air Canada did not disclose details of the agreement. A union representative said that in addition to better pay, progress had been made on pensions and working conditions.

On Thursday, Canadian business associations had called on the government to intervene, fearing that a strike would have an impact on the economy.

SDA