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Air Canada customers should check the status of their flight at aircanada.com before leaving for the airport

By Christine Dobby

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The union representing Air Canada’s ground crew claimed Friday that a wildcat strike was sparked after three workers were suspended for “slow clapping” federal labour minister Lisa Raitt at Toronto’s Pearson Airport and sarcastically telling her she was doing a “great job.”

Late Thursday night about 150 ground crew workers walked off the job in Toronto, but by Friday morning the labour action had spread to Montreal and Quebec City. A total of 37 Air Canada workers were subsequently fired for taking part in the unauthorised action, although they were later reinstated as part of the return to work deal.

Air Canada said that an arbitrator had issued an injunction Friday morning, bringing an end to the job action, and that its ground crew were returning to work. The airline claimed that the “illegal job action” was by a “small number of our ground handling employees.”

At least 77 Air Canada flights out of Toronto’s Pearson International Airport had been cancelled and 38 were listed as delayed at the peak of the stoppage Friday morning, while 15 flights out of Montreal’s Pierre Elliott Trudeau Airport had been cancelled or delayed. At Quebec City’s Jean Lesage International Airport four flights had been cancelled and a further eight delayed.