Air Canada vows business as usual after pilots' job action

Air Canada says it's preparing to resume a full flight schedule today after the federal labourboardordered the airline's pilots to end what it deemed tobe an illegal strike.

About 150pilots called in sickFriday, causing dozens of flights to be cancelled. The chair of Air Canada Pilots Association, representing 3,000 pilots, urgingmembers to report for work and ignore their "small group" of colleagues who decided to call in sick.

Capt. Jean-Marc Blanger, chair of the pilots association's executive council, said the union didn't initiate or sanction the job action.

Capt. Paul Strachan, union president,said hes not surprised that pilots are frustrated,now thatthe federal government has sent their contract dispute with the airline to arbitration.However,Blanger saidbothsides have a legal obligation to refrain from work disruptions while arbitration is continuing.

The airline said the Canada Industrial Relations Board granted an order declaring that certain pilots were engaged in an illegal strike.

The order called on the pilots' union to take all reasonable steps to end the illegal job action and to pressure all participating pilots to return to work immediately, the airline said.

Despite promises of a normal weekend flight schedule, there is a ripple effect from Friday's events.

At Toronto's Pearson airport, eight Air Canada flights were cancelled early Saturday and more than 15 were delayed.

In Montreal, three flights have been cancelled and two delayed. In Halifax, there were reports of four flight delays.

Air Canada spokesman Peter Fitzpatrick told CBC Newson Saturday that the latestdelays wereaspillover from Friday's cancellations.

In March, federal Labour Minister Lisa Raitt referred the airlines disputes with the pilots and with Air Canadas 8,600 ground crew to the Canada Industrial Relations Board.

A back-to-work bill was passed in mid-March but some ground workers staged a wildcat strike on March 23 that affected several Air Canada flights.

Flights were also cancelled March 18 when the airline faced runway problems at Pearson airport and pilots called in sick. It was followed a week later by a wildcat strike by ground staff in Toronto.

The Protecting Air Service Act removed the right to strike or lock out and ordered both disputes to be settled by arbitration.

Employees can be fined up to $1,000 and the union up to $50,000 for contravening the law.