The voting of the pilots working at Air Canada has begun to decide whether they will go on a work strike.

While the airline pilots' union ALPA stated that they hope to avoid work stoppage, they are ready to strike if a satisfactory agreement for the pilots is not reached. The vote will only empower the union to call for a strike on behalf of its members, and the actual strike is not expected to begin until mid-September.

Several rounds of talks between the airline and the union took place during January and June, yet they have entered a 60-day period of federal consultation.

A 21-day cooling-off period will begin, ending in mid-September, which will be within two weeks. If no agreement is reached by that time, the pilots may strike.

An ALPA spokesperson stated that if the members vote in favor of the strike mandate, the union will be enabled under Canadian labor law to walk off the job when the cooling-off period ends.

It is noteworthy that the negotiations at Air Canada come after a strike at another major airline in Canada, WestJet, where the mechanics’ union struck in July during the Canada Day long weekend, causing travel plans for more than ten thousand passengers to be disrupted.