Job action by Air North flight attendants was expected to begin today, says company president Joe Sparling.

Sparling said this morning he is disappointed but not mad that the 25 to 30 attendants have chosen to take job action, particularly since there is another bargaining session scheduled for next week with federal mediator Kathy Peters.

“I share the frustration with the employees’ group over the length of time it has taken but to suggest it is all the company’s fault is misleading,” he said.

Sparling pointed out while Local Y036 of the Yukon Employees Union has been at the table for almost a year, negotiators for the flight attendants put their wage proposal on the table just two weeks ago.

Air North responded a few days later with its counter proposal but has not heard back, he said.

The flight attendants became unionized in February 2013, and bargaining for their first collective agreement began last October, says the union press release issued this morning.

The union asked in June for a federal conciliator to assist in negotiations but she has been unsuccessful so far in bringing the parties to an agreement.

YEU president Steve Geick said it’s his understanding his negotiators did respond to Air North’s proposal and did make it clear the proposal was not going to cut it.

He said 85 per cent of the flight attendants voted in favour of a strike mandate, and the company was given the required 72-hour notice Friday at 8:01 a.m., putting the union in a strike position this morning.

The union felt the strike mandate and job action were necessary to emphasize the frustration of not being able to reach an agreement after almost a year at the table, Geick said.

“Although this is the first collective agreement and they usually take a little longer, I have not seen many take this long,” the union president said.

He said the flight attendants are choosing job action instead of a full strike with picket lines because their aim is to get back to the table with as little interruption as possible to the flying public.

“We understand people need to fly and have flights booked, and we respect that,” Geick said. “Whatever we do we are going to try and have the least impact on the flying public.

“Where we go from here will be based entirely on the company’s response.”

The job action, Geick explained, will involve the removal of all in-flight food and beverage services, but flight attendants will fulfill other essential duties such as helping passengers requiring assistance and performing the in-flight safety briefings.

He said not all flights will be affected, though would not say how many or when, but that all southbound and northbound flights will be subject to job action. Union representatives will be on hand at the airport to explain to passengers on affected flights why the flight attendants are conducting the job action, he said.

Geick said a full strike is not being ruled out, it’s just that at this time the union felt job action was more appropriate.

The Air North president said this morning he thought this afternoon’s Vancouver flight would be affected, and hopefully that’s it given next week’s scheduled bargaining session.

Company management staff will be on board to provide in-flight service on affected flights, Sparling said.

He emphasized that Air North, however, is not prepared to put up with the inconvenience to passengers forever, that at some point the company will implement its own contingency plans.

The company president did not want to use the phrase “lock out” to describe those plans because he didn’t want to issue a provocative statement.

“We have contingency plans in place, our flights will fly,” said Sparling.

He said Air North has and will continue to bargain in good faith.

The company feels the counter proposal to the union’s wage package tabled a couple of weeks ago serves the needs of the flight attendants better than the package tabled by the union, Sparling said.

He said issues such as work schedules, guaranteed hours in a month, and work days have been discussed at the table. But it was not possible to conclude those matters without knowing the union’s wage proposal, which he again noted was received two weeks ago.

“I could see job action if we said no to something they put on the table, but this simply is not the case.”

Both parties recognize that lining up bargaining sessions, dovetailing the schedules of all the negotiators, takes a bit of doing but Air North has been following the process, just as the union has, he said.

Sparling said that’s why it’s frustrating to see the job action now.

Geick, on the other hand, said the union has been at it for almost a year, and his union members continue to receive wages and benefits which are substandard compared to the rest of the airline industry.

Flight attendants are expected to work some unpaid hours cleaning the aircraft on certain flights, he said.

Geick said the industry standard is to guarantee attendants 75 to 80 paid hours of work every month, but Air North guarantees 70.

And when the 70-hour target isn’t met, the company uses the employees’ vacation pay and statutory holiday credits to make up for the financial shortfall in the monthly guarantee, he said.

He said sick days are deducted from anything over the 70 hours, and attendants are often expected to remain on call without any pay. Those who are on the reserve on-call list are compensated at half of what the industry standard is, Geick said.

Geick said he did not want to discuss the wage increase being sought because it’s still the subject of negotiations.

There are a number of other issues outlined in the union’s press release issued this morning.

Geick said if the situation elevates to full blown strike, he would expect all union members to respect the picket line, including Yukon government workers.

“But we are still encouraging people to fly Air North,” he said. “The flight attendants are second to none, no matter where you fly, and I think people recognize that.”

If a strike does occur, Geick noted, it will not affect the northbound flight to Old Crow because the union recognizes that flight to be an essential service to the Yukon’s most northernly community, which is not accessible by road.

Sparling said full-time flight attendants earn anywhere from $30,000 to $50,000 annually.

The hourly wage begins at $27.94 and goes to $47.29, but it is influenced by a complicated formula involving that number of hours in a block period of time that the flight attendants fly, he said.