A WestJet aircraft parks at Calgary International Airport on Thursday, three days ahead of a potential flight attendants' strike.Amir Salehi/The Globe and Mail
Major travel disruption could ensue this weekend if negotiations between WestJet and the union representing more than 4,000 of its flight attendants fail to make any significant progress toward a new collective agreement by Sunday.
On Thursday, the Canadian Union of Public Employees issued a 72-hour strike notice, saying that both the airline and the union were “still too far apart” on some key issues, but that bargaining will continue. “There’s still time to avoid a strike,” said Alia Hussain, president of CUPE Local 8125, the union chapter representing 4,400 flight attendants, in a statement.
“We want a fair contract for our members that recognizes the value of flight attendants’ work and recognizes our position as employees of the second-largest carrier in Canada,” she added.
Explainer: Why and when WestJet flight attendants could strike, and how it may affect you
WestJet responded to the union’s strike notice by issuing a 72-hour lockout notice. “We sincerely regret the inconvenience and uncertainty this continues to cause for our guests,” said Alexis von Hoensbroech, chief executive officer of WestJet, in a statement.
“Our commitment remains at the bargaining table, where we will continue to work around the clock to come to an agreement that provides value and meaningful improvements for our cabin crew and is sustainable for our company.”
A work stoppage could begin as soon as Sunday at 12:01 a.m. (Mountain Time) if the two sides do not reach an agreement.
The airline has informed passengers travelling between July 30 and Aug. 4 that they can make a one-time change or cancellation at no additional cost. WestJet is also making preparations to operate on a reduced schedule, although the airline did not specify if or when it will start cancelling flights.
CUPE and WestJet are at odds primarily over what flight attendants get paid before a plane departs the gate, and after it has landed. That period of compensation during active-duty time is known as ground pay. The union has long argued that the airline industry’s compensation system for flight attendants needs an overhaul, specifically because flight attendants are required to work before takeoff and after landing without getting paid.
WestJet flight attendants held a 'Day of Action' in Calgary on July 14, when union members voted almost unanimously in favour of a strike.Jeff McIntosh/The Canadian Press
But WestJet disputes the notion that flight attendants do not get ground pay. The airline pays its cabin crew through a system known as “credit hours.” A credit-hour rate is a negotiated hourly rate that the airline says accounts for work that flight attendants do on the ground. For example, if flight attendants worked a two-hour flight in a single day (time from takeoff to landing), they will get compensated a minimum of four credit hours. WestJet flight attendants are required to work a minimum of 80 credit hours in a month.
The credit-hour system, by virtue of its design, disproportionately benefits senior cabin crew members who tend to work long-haul flights and have less time on the ground in between flights. It is an inequity that the union is trying to resolve by pushing for ground pay.
A CUPE survey of thousands of flight attendants, conducted in 2023, found that regardless of the credit-hour compensation system, flight attendants ultimately do not get paid for an average of 35 hours of work that they perform in a given month.
The unpaid work that flight attendants perform caused a stalemate in last year’s negotiations between CUPE and Air Canada. That labour dispute made headlines last August when striking Air Canada flight attendants defied a back-to-work order issued by the federal government and continued striking for three days.
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The disruption grounded domestic and international flights, and ultimately culminated in CUPE brokering a tentative deal with Air Canada that, for the first time in the country, awarded flight attendants partial ground pay.
“CUPE wants to harmonize language between the Air Canada agreement and the WestJet agreement to set an industry standard, and so that Air Canada cannot come back to them in the next round of bargaining saying WestJet has a competitive advantage,” said Steven Tufts, a labour professor at York University.
Last week, WestJet flight attendants voted almost unanimously in favour of a strike, strengthening the union’s position at the negotiating table ahead of issuing a strike notice.
A poll conducted by the Ottawa-based research firm Abacus Data between July 17 and July 19 found that WestJet flight attendants had considerable public support in the dispute with the airline. Nearly two-thirds of Canadians, or 64 per cent, said they support the flight attendants in bargaining, compared with 11 per cent who support WestJet.