Ian Elliot
Northern News Services

INUVIK (May 15/98) - Northern air travellers are being caught in an increasingly bitter dispute between the company that runs the nation's air-traffic control system and the union representing controllers.

And air-traffic controllers working for Nav Canada, who overwhelmingly rejected a proposed contract offer late last month, said on Monday that they are ready to go on strike if no agreement can be reached.

Disruptions to scheduled flights are already occurring and have been for several months, according to airlines.

For example, last Sunday, just three days after 95 per cent of the 2,200 members of the Canadian Air Traffic Control Association rejected Nav Canada's contract offer, the scheduled NWT Air flight from Edmonton to Inuvik via Yellowknife was more than a half-hour late leaving Edmonton after it was denied permission to take off. The pilot announced that the plane had been caught in an internal dispute between controllers.

The plane spent almost a half-hour taxiing around the tarmac at the Edmonton airport, a tour that burned several hundred dollars in jet fuel, before getting clearance to leave.

Ten minutes before beginning the descent into Yellowknife, the pilot announced that he had only then been given clearance to land -- if it had not been given, the plane would have had to circle the city for 50 minutes, waiting until the top of the hour before asking the Yellowknife tower again for permission to land, a delay that would almost have doubled the length of the scheduled 105-minute flight.

The pilot, sounding frustrated, suggested passengers contact their local Member of Parliament if they were unhappy about the delay.

Earlier this year, a number of protesting controllers did not show up for their shifts at Toronto's Pearson International Airport, causing disruptions in service there. Airlines say there have been other delays.

Conrad Bellehumeur, Nav Canada's communications director, said a number of flights in the Northern sector of the country's air corridor were delayed last Sunday because there weren't enough controllers at work that day. He said the delays were a result of "unforeseen problems with staffing in that unit" but could not elaborate on why controllers were not at work.

The union, while declining comment on that particular situation, says ongoing delays are not the result of job actions but are due to chronic short-staffing and overwork because Nav Canada has 200 fewer controllers than it should have.

Caught in the middle are passengers.

"We can't make heads or tails of it," admitted Bruce Jonassen, general manager of NWT Air's western operations.

He said the airline has been having problems at the Edmonton airport for a number of months, and those problems have cost the airline money and inconvenienced passengers.

"The big problems are with the flights down to Edmonton. If you have a group of passengers going to Hawaii who have to catch a connector in Edmonton and they miss it because of a delay like this, we're the ones who have to pay to put them up in a hotel. It can cause no end of expense."

The dispute is between controllers and Nav Canada but it is airlines and their passengers who get caught, he said.

"It's insane. They're holding the travelling public hostage."

The proposed contract rejected by the union contained raises of between 11 and 38 per cent and calls for an increased work day and work week. Controllers rejected concessions it contains, particularly one that would force them to take the first two days of sickness without pay.

Union president Dave Lewis says controllers, like pilots, are prohibited from working after taking a number of prescription and over-the-counter medications. Lewis says the contract would force controllers who are not allowed to work because they took a medication to "take money out of our pockets."

The controllers are framing the issue as one of safety and Lewis says he thinks they will have public support. The union plans to impose a strict deadline on the next round of talks and hold an immediate strike vote if an agreement is not reached.

"We sure don't want to inconvenience the travelling public but controllers believe that Canadians understand just how difficult and stressful our jobs are."