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Trudeau states government will not intervene in Air Canada disagreement with pilots

The Canadian government will not intervene to end a disagreement between Air Canada and its pilots and intends rather to push both sides to avert a strike, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau stated on Friday.

An interruption might start as soon as Sept. 18. Air Canada and its affordable subsidiary Air Canada Rouge together run nearly 670 flights daily, and a shutdown might impact 110,000 travelers daily in addition to freight carriage.

Airline company and business groups want the Liberal federal government to require the 2 sides into binding arbitration before a strike starts, a concept that Trudeau dismissed.

I'm not going to put my thumb on the scale on either side. It is up to Air Canada and the pilots' union to do the work to determine how to make certain that they are not hurting countless Canadians, he informed reporters in Quebec.

Every time there's a strike, people say 'Oh, you'll get the government to come in and fix it' - we're not going to do that. We believe in collective bargaining, and we're going to keep pushing people to do it.

Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon fulfilled both the company and the union on Thursday. Both sides are still far apart on the question of wages.

(source: Reuters)