TORONTO (AP) — Canada’s second largest airline, WestJet, has reached a deal with its mechanics to end a strike that had disrupted the travel plans of tens of thousands of passengers over the Canada Day long weekend.
WestJet said late Sunday there will still be flight disruptions in the week ahead as its planes are brought back into service.
In its own news release, the Airplane Mechanics Fraternal Association urged its members to return to work immediately pending a vote on the temporary agreement.
Some 680 workers, whose daily inspections and repairs are essential to airline operations, had walked off the job on Friday evening despite a directive for binding arbitration from the labor minister.
Since Thursday, WestJet has canceled 829 flights scheduled between then and Monday in the busiest travel weekend of the season in Canada.
The vast majority of Sunday’s trips were called off as WestJet pared down its 180-plane fleet to 32 active aircraft and topped the global list for cancellations among major airlines over the weekend.
“The damage to Canadians and our airline is massive, a swift resolution was necessary; we take no victory laps on this outcome but will sleep better tonight knowing further harm has been prevented,” Diederik Pen, President of WestJet Airlines and Group Chief Operating Officer, said in a statement.
“We will see no further labor action coming out of this dispute, as both parties agree to arbitrate the contract in the case of a failed ratification.”
Details of the agreement were not immediately available.
The union had previously said its demands around wages would cost WestJet less than $8 million Canadian (US$5.6 million) beyond what the company has offered for the first year of the collective agreement — the first contract between the two sides. It has acknowledged the gains would surpass compensation for industry colleagues across Canada and sit more on par with U.S. counterparts.
WestJet had said it has offered a 12.5% wage hike in the first year of the contract, and a compounded wage increase of 23.5% over the rest of the 5 1/2-year term.
FILE - A westJet airplane takes off in Calgary, Alta., Jan. 21, 202. Mechanics at the Canadian airline WestJet say they are dropping plans to begin a strike now that the airline has agreed to resume negotiations on a new collective-bargaining agreement. Members of the Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association had been preparing to walk off the job on Thursday night. (Jeff McIntosh/The Canadian Press via AP, File)
PHOENIX (AP) — Organizers of competing abortion measures in Nebraska said Wednesday that they collected enough signatures to get on the November ballot.
Officials with Protect Our Rights, which seeks to enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution, said they turned in 207,000 signatures to the Nebraska secretary of state’s office.
SBA Pro-Life America says 205,000 signatures have been submitted to enshrine Nebraska's current 12-week ban into the state constitution.
The secretary of state's office will go through the process of validating that each signature belongs to a registered voter in Nebraska over the next several weeks.
Petition initiatives seeking a constitutional amendment must collect enough signatures to equal 10% of registered voters in the state, or about 123,000. Additionally, 5% of the signatures must come from 38 of the state’s 93 counties — a requirement adopted years ago to ensure rural voters have some say in the petition process.
Organizers of the competing efforts have accused each other of misleading voters about the scope of their petitions in an effort to gather as many signatures as possible.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.
PHOENIX (AP) — Arizona abortion-rights supporters on Wednesday turned in more than double the signatures needed to put the issue on November’s ballot in the key swing state.
Organizers say they submitted 823,685 signatures, far above the 383,923 required from registered voters. The measure would add an amendment to the state constitution providing a fundamental right to an abortion.
County election officials have until Aug. 22 to verify whether enough of the petition signatures are valid and provide results to the Arizona secretary of state’s office.
Democrats have made abortion rights a central message since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022 and it is a key part of their efforts in this year’s elections. Activists in Nebraska and Arkansas also are planning to submit signatures this week for abortion ballot measures. In five other states, the issue already is set to go before voters this year: Colorado, Florida, Maryland, Nevada and South Dakota.
Arizona currently has a 15-week abortion ban. The proposed amendment would allow abortions until a fetus could survive outside the womb, typically around 24 weeks, with exceptions to save the mother’s life or to protect her physical or mental health. It would restrict the state from adopting or enforcing any law that would prohibit access to the procedure.
Opponents say it goes too far and could lead to unlimited and unregulated abortions in Arizona. Supporters say a change in the state’s constitution is necessary to ensure that abortion rights cannot be easily erased by a court decision or legislative vote.
Arizona for Abortion Access, a coalition that includes the American Civil Liberties Union of Arizona and Planned Parenthood of Arizona, turned in hundreds of boxes of signed petitions to the secretary of state's office.
Arizona for Abortion Access spokesperson Dawn Penich said it was the most signatures ever submitted for a citizens initiative in state history.
“That was our goal from the get-go,” Penich said. “We started collecting signatures in September and October 2023 and saw how passionate people are about this issue.”
In April, the Arizona Supreme Court upheld a 1864 abortion ban that permitted abortions only to save the mother’s life and provided no exceptions for survivors of rape or incest, but the Republican-controlled Legislature voted for a repeal of the Civil War-era ban, and Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs quickly signed. The 19th century law had been blocked since the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization that eliminated constitutional protections for abortion.
The current 15-week ban was signed into law in 2022 and includes exceptions in cases of medical emergencies and has restrictions on medication abortion. It also requires an ultrasound before an abortion is done, as well as parental consent for minors.
In Nebraska, organizers of a petition to enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution have expressed confidence that they’ve gathered enough signatures to get it on the November ballot.
Allie Berry, campaign manager for Protect Our Rights, and organizers of a competing petition effort to codify Nebraska’s 12-week abortion ban in the state constitution would not say how many signatures they had gathered ahead of Wednesday’s deadline.
Both efforts, as well as a third that would ban abortion at all stages by deeming embryos as people, must turn in around 123,000 valid signatures — or 10% of registered voters in the state — to qualify for the ballot.
The total abortion ban effort in Nebraska started only eight weeks ago and is unlikely to gather the signatures it needs. The 12-week ban proposal — which kicked off in March thanks to a $500,000 donation from Nebraska Republican U.S. Sen. Pete Ricketts — has made a furious 11th-hour push to gather signatures but has telegraphed that it might not meet the threshold.
Supporters of an Arkansas proposal to scale back the state’s abortion ban face a Friday deadline to submit petitions to qualify for the November ballot. The group behind the measure, Arkansans for Limited Government, said on Facebook and Instagram on Tuesday that it still needed 8,200 signatures out of the 90,704 required.
The proposed constitutional amendment would prohibit the state from banning abortion within the first 18 weeks of pregnancy. It includes exceptions for rape, incest, fatal fetal anomalies and to protect the mother's life. It would also exempt abortions performed to protect the mother from a physical disorder, physical illness or physical injury.
Arkansas' current ban exempts abortions only to protect the mother’s life in a medical emergency.
Associated Press reporters Margery A. Beck in Omaha, Nebraska, and Andrew DeMillo in Little Rock, Arkansas, contributed to this report.
This story has been corrected to reflect that the Arizona Supreme Court decision upholding the 1864 abortion ban was in April, not two months ago.
FILE - Hundreds of people gather at the Nebraska Capitol to protest against a proposed abortion ban, in Lincoln, on May 16, 2023. Organizers of competing petition efforts seeking to squelch or expand abortion access are looking to gather enough signatures before the early July 2024, deadline to make the November ballot. (AP Photo/Margery Beck, File)
FILE - Protesters chant, "one vote to save our lives," as they are heard in the legislative chamber during a final reading on LB574, the Let Them Grow Act, on Tuesday, May 16, 2023, at State Capitol in Lincoln, Neb. Organizers of competing petition efforts seeking to squelch or expand abortion access are looking to gather enough signatures before the early July 2024, deadline to make the November ballot. (Kenneth Ferriera/Lincoln Journal Star via AP, File)
FILE - Protesters join thousands marching around the Arizona Capitol in Phoenix, protesting the U.S. Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, June 24, 2022. Abortion rights advocates are set to deliver about 800,000 petition signatures Wednesday, July 3, 2024, in hopes of getting abortion rights on the November general election ballot. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin, File)
FILE - Volunteer signature gatherers Judy Robbins, left, and Lara Cerri, center, collect Grace Harders' signature on a petition to enshrine the right to abortion in Arizona's consitution, April 10, 2024, in Phoenix. Abortion rights advocates are set to deliver about 800,000 petition signatures Wednesday, July 3, 2024, in hopes of getting abortion rights on the November general election ballot. (AP Photo/Anita Snow, File)
