Tensions between Air North and its unionized flight attendants are already escalating.

Air North president Joe Sparling said he was piloting yesterday evening’s Boeing 737 return flight to Vancouver when two of the three flight attendants showed up in T-shirts with “smart-ass remarks” on them and refused to perform their duties.

Instead, Sparling said, the two flight attendants sat down and were handing out what he described as propaganda to Air North customers.

“In my mind it was the most disrespectful and shameful performance that I have seen,” he said. “I have no appetite for that.”

One of the three did fulfill her or his duties, he said.

Sparling said he rejected three flight attendants this morning who showed up in the same T-shirts instead of their company uniforms, and replaced them with three of eight attendants the company has trained over the last month.

Air North will respect the rights of any flight attendants who show up for work properly uniformed and willing to perform their duties, he said.

Otherwise, he added, the company will use the recently trained attendants and management staff to service the flights.

Air North prides itself on customer service, and yesterday’s performance was nowhere near company standards, said the company president.

Sparling said the manager of flight attendants who also works as a full-time attendant was on this morning’s flight, for instance.

The airline’s 25 to 30 regular attendants unionized in February 2013 and began negotiating their first collective agreement last October.

Union president Steve Geick of the Yukon Employees Union said Monday 85 per cent of the flight attendants voted in support of a strike mandate. Air North was given the 72-hour mandatory notice Friday morning, putting the union in a strike position Monday morning, he explained.

Geick said the company was informed union members have chosen to conduct job action at this point to emphasize their frustration over the length of time it’s taking to reach an agreement, instead of full strike action.

The job action includes the withdrawal of non-essential in-flight food and beverage service, though attendants will help passengers who need assistance and will conduct their safety briefings and other safety-related duties, says a union press release.

Geick said this morning Air North issued a statement just yesterday indicating it supported the right of attendants to conduct job action, but today the company seems to be singing a different tune.

The union president said he was on Monday evening’s Vancouver flight and noted management staff who were serving customers did not have uniforms, and did not have anything identifying them as flight attendants, as required by regulation.

The T-shirt worn by the regular attendants do identify them as attendants, he said.

Geick said the union also respects the rights of those attendants who do not chose to follow the majority of their colleagues and instead do what they feel they need to do. Job action is not the same as a full-blown strike with a picket line, he said.

Geick said the union is always prepared to negotiate.

Sparling noted his frustration again this morning over the job action occurring while negotiations are continuing, with a session scheduled for next week with federal mediator Kathy Peter.

The company trained the eight new attendants over the last month in anticipation of this situation, and may have to advertise for more positions, depending on the ongoing negotiations, he explained.

He said as a result of the job action on a charter flight out of Edmonton into the Oil Patch yesterday, he may be looking for three attendants in Edmonton to replace three Whitehorse attendants.

The oil company that chartered the flight wants nothing to do with the job action taken on the flight, and as a result, Air North had to hire another airline company to fly the charter, Sparling said.

He said Air North was assured charter flights would not be affected.

The union is seeking a wage increase, among other issues such as a guaranteed number of working hours every month and paid sick leave and vacation leave.

The current wage and benefit package is well below industry standards, the union maintains.

Sparling said the company has about 500 employees, of which 250 to 300 are stationed in Whitehorse with the majority of others located in Vancouver.

The flight attendants are the only segment of Air North’s workforce who are unionized.

The company estimates it flies between 15,000 and 20,000 passengers per month.