WestJet flight attendants went on strike and then stopped striking after the airline agreed to pay them more money. This is apparently newsworthy in 2024.
The union reached a tentative deal Monday. Flights got cancelled. Passengers got stranded. Everyone acted surprised that people who serve ginger ale at 30,000 feet wanted competitive wages. The airline industry continues to operate like it's a shocking revelation that workers expect compensation.
Here's what happened: Flight attendants wanted more money. WestJet said no. Flight attendants stopped working. WestJet reconsidered. A deal emerged. This sequence of events has occurred roughly fourteen million times in human history, but investors needed to know about this specific instance in Canada.
Retail traders saw this headline and immediately started scanning for the angle. Is this bullish for Air Canada? Bearish for Boeing? Does this affect my calls on Spirit Airlines that are already down 87%? They're refreshing their brokerage apps right now trying to figure out how a labor dispute in Calgary impacts their position in something called "JETS ETF" that they bought because the ticker made them feel like a Wall Street guy.
The technical analysis remains unchanged. None of this matters. The stock will do what it was going to do anyway. Drawing lines on a chart of an airline during a strike is like drawing lines on a chart of the weather. You're just watching chaos pretend to have patterns.
WestJet will pay flight attendants slightly more. Ticket prices will adjust by some invisible margin. The stock will move based on interest rates and fuel costs and a dozen other variables that have nothing to do with whether Sandra in row 12 gets her pretzels on time. But sure, let's all pretend this tentative wage deal is the catalyst your portfolio needed.
Photo by David Syphers on Unsplash
Leave a Comment