Air Canada AC-T scrapped plans to resume service Sunday after the union that represents striking flight attendants said it would defy a federal government order that they return to their jobs.
Instead, the Montreal-based airline said it now plans to resume flights on Monday evening, despite executives with the Canadian Union of Public Employees insisting that they have no intention of ending the walkout, which began early Saturday, without a negotiated collective agreement.
On Sunday morning, the Canada Industrial Relations Board (CIRB) directed the airline and striking flight attendants to restart service operations for all Air Canada and Air Canada Rouge flights after an order from federal Jobs Minister Patty Hajdu.
The minister ordered the parties to resume work and extend the terms of the existing collective agreement until a new one could be determined by an arbitrator.
Stranded Air Canada passengers wait at Pearson International Airport. Air Canada said it now plans to resume flights on Monday evening, despite CUPE executives stating that they have no intention of ending the walkout.DUANE COLE/The Globe and Mail
That order was set to take effect at 2 p.m. Sunday, but as the deadline came and went, employees assembled outside Toronto Pearson International Airport remained in place and chanted, “Don’t blame me, blame AC.”
“Our members are refusing to give in and go back to work,” said CUPE national president Mark Hancock. “At the end of the day, we’re defying the law here. The law is wrong, the government is wrong, the company is wrong, and we’re prepared to stand up for these workers as long as it takes.”
Ms. Hajdu made the order under Section 107 of the Canada Labour Code, which allows the minister to unilaterally take action to “secure industrial peace.”
Unlike recent instances where the federal government used the process to quickly end strike actions – including in labour disputes involving railways, ports and Canada Post – the refusal of the flight attendants’ union to abide by the current order could create a political crisis for the Liberal government by calling Ottawa’s bluff. It’s not at all clear how a labour quagmire that has left its mark on travellers across the globe will be resolved.
As for passengers whose plans have been thrown into uncertainty, the standoff between the union and Ottawa has only worsened their late-summer travel nightmare.
Passengers around the world were left scrambling to find flights as the fate of the job action changed throughout the weekend. Roughly 500,000 passengers had their plans disrupted by the shutdown as of Sunday evening, and they rushed to snap up a dwindling number of alternative flights on other airlines at escalating prices, with no clarity about when Air Canada will start up again.
Air Canada passengers are stranded at Toronto Pearson International Airport on Sunday due to cancellations caused by the flight attendant’s strike.DUANE COLE/The Globe and Mail
The federal government struggled to come up with a response to the union’s actions Sunday.
The Prime Minister’s Office referred questions to Ms. Hajdu’s office. In a statement, Ms. Hajdu’s press secretary, Jennifer Kozelj, said the minister was “monitoring the situation closely” and that the CIRB is an independent tribunal. “Please refer to them regarding your question.”
The CIRB did not respond to questions sent by e-mail Sunday.
In an interview, Mark Nasr, Air Canada’s chief operating officer, took aim at CUPE leadership for violating the labour board’s order. “Canada is a country of laws, Canada is a country of rules, Canada is a country of values,” he said.
“You now have the head of one of the largest, most important unions in Canada publicly committing to ignoring the ruling. There is only one solution out of this, and that is for CUPE to stop the illegal guidance that they’re giving to Air Canada flight attendants.”
The company and the union have been unable to find agreement on two key areas: wages and unpaid work.
The airline offered a wage increase of 17.2 per cent over four years. However, the union argues that it falls well short of matching inflation over the 10 years since the most recent collective agreement was signed.
Flight attendants picket at Pearson International Airport on August 17th 2025. Duane Cole/The Globe and MailDUANE COLE/The Globe and Mail
The thornier issue is compensation for work when crews are on the ground. For decades, it has been industry practice that flight attendants are compensated solely for in-flight work and not the hours spent on the ground.
“This is a time in history, for this group, and we’re not going to allow that to continue on with these workers,” said Mr. Hancock.
Mr. Nasr said the issue of “ground pay is settled. Our flight attendants will earn ground pay with the new contract.”
Air Canada has warned that the complete shutdown of service, which left crews out of position for its flights, means it will take at least a week to restore full operations.
The longer the strike goes on and aircraft sit idle on the ground, the more time it will take for service to eventually resume, said Mr. Nasr, adding that the additional day of strike action will “cause the ramp up to be about three days longer.”
Air Canada has also warned that further flight cancellations will occur over the next week as it tries to resume normal operations.
At Pearson Airport, uncertainty over the status of the strike sowed confusion among passengers.
Sabrina Marrat (centre) travelled to Canada from Italy with her husband for their honeymoon prior to the start of the Air Canada flight attendant’s strike. On Sunday they were among the pAir Canada passengers stuck at Toronto Pearson Airport.DUANE COLE/The Globe and Mail
Sabrina Marrati, 34, travelled for the first time to Canada from Italy for a two-week honeymoon with her husband. She was scheduled to fly to Calgary from Toronto early Sunday morning, but her flight was cancelled. Air Canada was unable to book the couple on another flight because they were all sold out, she said.
She said the airline was telling passengers to remain at the airport, or accept a refund. But Ms. Marrati and her husband, who spent a week on the East Coast, already have a tour and hotels booked for a week out West. The trip cost them a total of about €10,000, she said.
The flight cancellations have also left passengers stranded abroad furious at the lack of communication about the status of their tickets.
Travellers affected by Air Canada strike scramble for answers at Toronto’s Pearson airport
Lisa Pasquin’s extended family has been on a two-week trip to Greece that was supposed to end Sunday with a flight back to Toronto. She said the airline finally messaged her hours before the flight’s departure that it had been cancelled. No flights on other airlines could be found, the airline told her.
However, Ms. Pasquin had conducted her own search earlier. She found a flight home, by way of England and an overnight stay in New Jersey.
All told, she’s out “thousands and thousands of dollars.”
“I never in my wildest dreams imagined the response from Air Canada would be, ‘Sorry, no flights, good luck,’” said Ms. Pasquin, who holds Aeroplan Elite Status in the airline’s loyalty program.
Air Canada staff try to assist passengers at Pearson International Airport on Sunday amid the ongoing strike by the airline's flight attendants.DUANE COLE/The Globe and Mail
While many passengers said they support the striking workers, not all do.
Scott Gardner, who was trying to get back to Vancouver on Sunday with his wife, blamed the flight attendants for causing the delays by asking for an excessive increase in pay.
“I think that they’re painting a picture that is making them out to be the victims, when they’re the ones that are causing us to be stuck here, sitting on up against the wall, doing nothing,” he said.
Mr. Nasr said Air Canada’s “first priority is doing everything we can to support our customers through this” including rebookings on other airlines, the option of full refunds and rebooking travel that hasn’t commenced for up to one year for free.
“That being said, half a million customers have been disrupted and if you think about any company’s capacity to handle such a thing, our call centres are overwhelmed,” he said.
As the strike neared, the government was under mounting pressure from both the airline and the tourism industry, which has been a rare bright spot in an economy hit hard by tariffs, to avert a strike.
After the strike began, Ottawa turned to a process it has come to rely on heavily when confronted by labour disruptions in key sectors – directing the federal labour board to order employees back to work.
Airlines work to add flights, make schedule adjustments in face of Air Canada labour dispute
Since 2024, the government has intervened this way in labour disputes involving ports in the West and East of the country, railway lockouts and Canada Post.
“It was almost like the Liberals woke up one day and realized they had this discretionary power and started using it left, right and centre,” said Alison Braley-Rattai, an associate professor in labour studies at Brock University.
Unions in other sectors responded by filing multiple appeals with the Federal Court of Appeal, and those cases are winding their way slowly through the courts.
But by outright defying the CIRB’s order in the flight attendants’ strike, CUPE has thrown a wrench into the government’s plans.
“This is now a political problem that puts the onus back onto the government to solve,” said Prof. Braley-Rattai.
That the federal government has passed the question of CUPE’s defiance back to the labour board could also be problematic.
In hearings Saturday, the union’s lawyers argued that board chair Maryse Tremblay should recuse herself from the case because of her past connection to Air Canada, where she served as in-house counsel from 1998 to 2004 and later represented the airline in other proceedings as recently as 2022.
The board dismissed the union’s assertions but they may resurface if the CIRB is asked to play an enforcement role against the union.
The Canadian Press
Editor’s note: An earlier version of this article incorrectly identified Alison Braley-Rattai's title as assistant professor. This version has been corrected.
Are you affected by the Air Canada flight attendant strike?
The union representing around 10,000 Air Canada flight attendants has been on strike since Aug. 16 after negotiations between the two sides reached an impasse, and the company has cancelled flights. Our reporters want to hear from passengers that have had their plans affected by the strike. Have you had to switch your flights or change your travel schedule? Share your story in the box below.