Air Canada strike: Live updates [Video]

Air Canada’s potential work stoppage could ground flights, halt cargo and leave travellers scrambling to reschedule next week.

The airline and its pilots are at a negotiating impasse over wages. The union, the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA), seeks to narrow the gap between Canadian and American salaries.

In late August, its members voted 98 per cent in favour of a strike.

“We continue to negotiate in good faith,” said union leader Charlene Hudy at the time of the vote. With a US$5 million fund available to sustain a potential work stoppage, the union says it’s “prepared for any outcome.”

Meanwhile, Air Canada has asked the federal government to step in and force arbitration. It would be the second time Ottawa decided to to take the reins of labour negotiations in as many months after trains on Canada’s two largest railways halted in August.

Arbitration is a powerful tool for …