Union activists maintain placards, as they interrupt a press convention by Air Canada executives, forward of a possible strike by Air Canada flight attendants, at a resort in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, August 14, 2025.
Kyaw Soe Oo | Reuters
The union representing 10,000 placing Air Canada flight attendants mentioned Sunday it would problem an order for them to return to work, including “we stay on strike.”
The Canada Industrial Relations Board ordered airline employees again by 2 p.m. ET Sunday after the federal government intervened and Air Canada mentioned it deliberate to renew flights Sunday night.
“We will probably be difficult this blatantly unconstitutional order,” the CUPE union mentioned in an announcement. “We stay on strike. We demand a good, negotiated contract and to be compensated for all hours labored.”
The strike has stranded greater than 100,000 vacationers world wide throughout the peak summer season journey season.
The nation’s largest airline mentioned early Sunday in a launch that the primary flights will 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 will probably be canceled over the following seven to 10 days till the schedule is stabilized.
Lower than 12 hours after staff walked off the job, Federal Jobs Minister Patty Hajdu ordered the ten,000 flight attendants again to work, saying now is just not the time to take dangers with the financial 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 Canada Industrial Relations Board has prolonged the time period of the present 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 individuals a day. Air Canada operates round 700 flights per day.
Based on numbers from aviation analytics supplier Cirium, Air Canada had canceled a complete of 671 flights by Saturday afternoon — following 199 on Friday. And one other 96 flights scheduled for Sunday have been already suspended.
The bitter contract battle 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 determine the phrases of a brand new contract.
Flight attendants walked off the job round 1 a.m. on Saturday. Across the similar time, Air Canada mentioned it will start locking flight attendants out of airports.
Final yr, the federal government compelled the nation’s two main railroads into arbitration with their labor union throughout a piece stoppage. The union for the rail staff is suing, arguing the federal government is eradicating a union’s leverage in negotiations.
The Enterprise 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 is just not anti-union, saying it’s clear the 2 sides are at an deadlock.
Passengers whose flights are impacted will probably be eligible to request a full refund on the airline’s web site or cell app, based on Air Canada.
The airline mentioned it will additionally supply different journey choices by way of different Canadian and overseas airways when attainable. Nonetheless, it warned that it couldn’t assure rapid rebooking as a result of flights on different airways are already full “because of the summer season journey peak.”
Air Canada and the Canadian Union of Public Workers have been in contract talks for about eight months, however they’ve but to achieve a tentative deal.
Either 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 whole compensation, together with advantages and pensions, over 4 years, that it mentioned “would have made our flight attendants the very best compensated in Canada.”
However the union pushed again, saying the proposed 8% increase within the first yr did not go far sufficient due to inflation.