Flight attendants demonstrate at Montreal-Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport on Saturday. The union announced it would go on strike after it and Air Canada failed to reach an agreement.Peter McCabe/Reuters
Air Canada’s AC-T flight attendants followed through on their threat to walk off the job early Saturday, in a bitter contract dispute between the carrier and its employees that has already led to hundreds of cancelled flights.
The strike follows several days of silence at the negotiation table, after the carrier declared on Tuesday that negotiations with the Air Canada Component of CUPE had reached an impasse. The union said the airline has not been at the table since Tuesday, the day before it issued a strike notice. In response, the airline issued a lockout notice later Wednesday.
The airline wound down operations earlier this week in anticipation of a full stoppage of Air Canada and Air Canada Rouge flights. Early Saturday morning, the carrier posted a media release that it suspended all operations of Air Canada and Air Canada Rouge. It said the airline has been reducing its schedule of about 700 daily flights since the union issued a strike notice on Wednesday and anticipates about 130,000 customers will be affected.
As of 8 p.m. ET Friday, about 623 flights had been cancelled and 100,100 people impacted by the then-coming strike, Air Canada said in a social-media post to X.
Explainer: What’s happening between Air Canada and the flight attendants’ union?
In an interview with The Globe and Mail Friday evening, Natasha Stea, a flight attendant who represents her colleagues in Montreal as president of CUPE Local 4091, said the two parties could not come to an agreement on how flight attendants would be brought home, but said the carrier had agreed to hotels and per diems for employees.
Air Canada did not respond to requests for comment on Friday.
The union’s proposed wind down and ramp up agreement was posted to a website dedicated to the strike. It outlined that bringing union members home would be Air Canada’s responsibility and that members could operate the flights home, if needed, under the Collective Agreement.
Air Canada has urged the federal government to step in and bring the negotiations to binding arbitration, while the union has strongly opposed it. Jobs Minister Patty Hajdu publicly encouraged the two parties to come to a contract agreement.
The two have been struggling to find a middle ground on wage and unpaid work.
On Thursday, Air Canada released details about its proposal to the union at the time, saying hourly pay would increase by 12 to 16 per cent in the first year, which would include an 8-per-cent increase, alongside changes to ground pay, which is pay for flight attendants when the plane is not in the air.
Ground pay has been a key contention between the two parties, with the union arguing flight attendants can end up doing a few dozen hours of unpaid work in the time before and after flights each month.
In its Thursday release, Air Canada said it has introduced a new provision that would be “industry leading in Canada,” but did not provide specifics.
The two have focused on different aspects of compensation in their public remarks: the union on wages and the airline on total compensation.
Air Canada has said that the proposed compensation package, which would include benefits and pension, would make the workers the best compensated in Canada.
Union representatives have repeatedly criticized the current pay structure for flight attendants, saying that when rookie flight attendants’ wages are divided over the hours worked, they don’t even earn minimum wage.
The union issued the carrier a notice to bargain in December, 2024, ahead of the collective agreements expiration in March.
Are you affected by a possible Air Canada flight attendant strike?
The union representing around 10,000 Air Canada flight attendants could go on strike as early as Aug. 16 after negotiations between the two sides reached an impasse, and the company has already begun to cancel flights. Our reporters want to hear from passengers that have had their plans affected by the possible strike. Have you had to switch your flights or change your travel schedule? Share your story in the box below.