Canadian Airbus A220 jet assembly workers will initiate pressure tactics today that would slow production, after voting yesterday to reject a proposed contract and give strike authorisation, a union official said.
Around 99 per cent of the estimated 1,000 members represented by the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) who voted rejected the contract, and gave strike authorization, said Eric Rancourt, a union spokesperson for the negotiations.
While the authorisation mandate does not equate to an actual strike, the vote signals discontent among the estimated 1,300 Montreal-area workers who assemble Airbus’s smallest commercial jet in Mirabel, Quebec.
The negotiations have raised tensions at a time when Airbus is trying to grow A220 production while lowering the cost of the money-losing program, even as it rides a broader wave of orders from airlines coping with a rebound in travel demand from the Covid-19 pandemic.
Union plans to return to bargaining today will coincide with the start of pressure tactics that would slow production, Rancourt said after the vote, without giving further details.
A second assembly line in Mobile, Alabama also produces the A220.
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