More than 10,000 flight attendants are poised to walk off the job around 1 a.m. ET on Saturday, followed by a company-imposed lockout if the two sides can't reach an eleventh-hour deal.

The Canadian Union of Public Employees released a statement on Friday afternoon urging Federal Jobs Minister Patty Hajdu "not to intervene" in negotiations by invoking Section 107 of the Canada Labour Code, "thereby permitting collective bargaining to continue and allowing the parties to negotiate a resolution."

Air Canada had previously asked CUPE to consider binding interest arbitration, which would bring an arbitrator into the negotiations to make decisions on key agenda items that the two sides haven't been able to agree on.

After CUPE declined that request earlier this week, Air Canada then asked Ha

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