AROUND 10,000 Air Canada flight attendants voted down the employer’s wage offer that the union and airline agreed to last month, but another walkout is not expected.

The result of the vote on Saturday showed that 99.1 per cent of the flight attendants were against the wage element of the tentative new contract.

The airline says the wage portion will now be referred to mediation as previously agreed upon by both sides.

“Air Canada and CUPE [Canadian Union of Public Employees] contemplated this potential outcome and mutually agreed that if the tentative agreement was not ratified, the wage portion would be referred to mediation and, if no agreement was reached at that stage, to arbitration,” the airline said in a statement.

“The parties also agreed that no labour disruption could be initiated, and therefore there will be no strike or lockout, and flights will continue to operate.”

The Air Canada component of the CUPE says most terms would still form part of a new collective agreement with the airline, except for the wage issue.

Air Canada restarted operations on August 19 after reaching an agreement with the flight attendants to end a strike that brought the airline to a standstill at the peak of the summer travel season.