An Air Canada agent, left, talks with a person as Air Canada flight attendants strike at Montreal-Pierre Elliott Trudeau Worldwide Airport in Montreal, Saturday, Aug. 16, 2025.
Graham Hughes/The Canadian Press/AP
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Graham Hughes/The Canadian Press/AP
TORONTO — Air Canada mentioned it suspended plans to restart operations on Sunday after the union representing 10,000 flight attendants mentioned it’s going to defy a return to work order. The strike was already affecting about 130,000 vacationers around the globe per day throughout the peak summer season journey season.
The Canada Industrial Relations Board ordered airline employees again to work by 2 p.m. Sunday after the federal government intervened and Air Canada mentioned it deliberate to renew flights Sunday night.
Canada’s largest airline now says it’s going to resume flights Monday night. Air Canada mentioned in a press release that the union “illegally directed its flight attendant members to defy a direction from the Canadian Industrial Relations Board.”
“Our members are not going back to work,” Canadian Union of Public Workers nationwide president Mark Hancock mentioned exterior Toronto’s Pearson Worldwide Airport. “We are saying no.”
The federal authorities did not instantly present touch upon the union refusing to return to work.
Hancock mentioned the “whole process has been unfair” and mentioned the union will problem what it known as an unconstitutional order.
“Air Canada has really refused to bargain with us and they refused to bargain with us because they knew this government would come in on their white horse and try and save the day,” he mentioned.
The nation’s largest airline had mentioned early Sunday in a launch that the primary flights would resume later within the day however that it’s going to take a number of days earlier than its operations return to regular. It mentioned some flights shall be canceled over the subsequent seven to 10 days till the schedule is stabilized.
Lower than 12 hours after employees walked off the job, Federal Jobs Minister Patty Hajdu ordered the ten,000 flight attendants again to work, saying now will not be the time to take dangers with the economic system and noting the unprecedented tariffs the U.S. has imposed on Canada. Hajdu referred the work stoppage to the Canada Industrial Relations Board.
The airline mentioned the CIRB has prolonged the time period of the prevailing collective settlement till a brand new one is decided by the arbitrator.
The shutdown of Canada’s largest airline early Saturday was impacting about 130,000 folks a day. Air Canada operates round 700 flights per day.
Flight attendants walked off the job round 1 a.m. EDT on Saturday. Across the similar time, Air Canada mentioned it will start locking flight attendants out of airports.
The bitter contract struggle escalated Friday because the union turned down Air Canada’s prior request to enter into government-directed arbitration, which permits a third-party mediator to resolve the phrases of a brand new contract.
Final yr, the federal government pressured the nation’s two main railroads into arbitration with their labor union throughout a piece stoppage. The union for the rail employees is suing, arguing the federal government is eradicating a union’s leverage in negotiations.
The Business Council of Canada had urged the federal government to impose binding arbitration on this case, too. And the Canadian Chamber of Commerce welcomed the intervention.
Hajdu maintained that her Liberal authorities will not be anti-union, saying it’s clear the 2 sides are at an deadlock.
Passengers whose flights are impacted shall be eligible to request a full refund on the airline’s web site or cell app, in line with Air Canada.
The airline mentioned it will additionally supply different journey choices by means of different Canadian and overseas airways when doable. Nonetheless, it warned that it couldn’t assure rapid rebooking as a result of flights on different airways are already full “due to the summer travel peak.”
Air Canada and CUPE have been in contract talks for about eight months, however they’ve but to succeed in a tentative deal. Each side have mentioned they continue to be far aside on the difficulty of pay and the unpaid work flight attendants do when planes aren’t within the air.
The airline’s newest supply included a 38% improve in complete compensation, together with advantages and pensions, over 4 years, that it mentioned “would have made our flight attendants the best compensated in Canada.”
However the union pushed again, saying the proposed 8% elevate within the first yr did not go far sufficient due to inflation.
