Air Canada’s unionised flight attendants have reached a breakthrough agreement with the country’s largest airline, bringing an end to the first cabin crew strike in 40 years, which had severely disrupted travel plans for hundreds of thousands of passengers across the busy summer season.
The strike that lasted nearly four days led the airline that serves about 130,000 people daily to withdraw its third-quarter and full-year earnings guidance.
Full Restoration To Take A Week
The carrier said it would gradually resume operations later on Tuesday, and a full restoration may require a week or more. The union said it has completed mediation with the airline and its low-cost affiliate Air Canada Rouge.
“The Strike has ended. We have a tentative agreement we will bring forward to you,” the Canadian Union of Public Employees said in a Facebook post.
Air Canada said some flights will be canceled over the next seven to 10 days until the schedule is stabilized, and that customers with canceled flights can choose between a refund, travel credit, or rebooking on another airline.
Mark Nasr, Air Canada’s executive vice president and chief operations officer, told CBC that 5,000 employees are working to rebook customers on Air Canada and 120 other airlines.
No Unpaid Work
The flight attendants walked off the job on Saturday after contract talks with the carrier failed. They had sought pay for tasks such as boarding passengers.
While details of the negotiations were not immediately released, the union said unpaid work was over.
Air Canada’s flight attendants had for months argued new contracts should include pay for work done on the ground, such as boarding passengers.
“Ground pay is settled. Our flight attendants will be compensated for their time on the ground,” Nasr told CBC.
CUPE, which represents Air Canada’s 10,400 flight attendants, wanted to make gains on unpaid work that go beyond recent advances secured by their counterparts at US carriers like American Airlines.
Rare Act Of Defiance
In a rare act of defiance, the union remained on strike even after the Canada Industrial Relations Board declared its action unlawful.
Their refusal to follow a federal labor board order for the flight attendants to return to work had created a three-way standoff between the company, workers, and the government.
Jobs Minister Patty Hajdu had urged both sides to consider government mediation and raised pressure on Air Canada on Monday, promising to investigate allegations of unpaid work in the airline sector.
A spokesperson for Hajdu said the probe would take six to eight weeks and then be made public.
Passenger Frustration
Over the past two years, unions in aerospace, construction, airline, and rail sectors have pushed employers for higher pay, improved conditions, and better benefits amid a tight labor market.
While many customers had expressed support for the flight attendants, frustration with flight cancellations was growing.
Retiree Klaus Hickman, who missed a flight to Toronto earlier in the week, sympathizes with workers demanding better pay but is worried about his own health and travel challenges.
“They want to get more money to survive. And so it is with everybody else,” he said.
Canada’s largest carrier is part of the global Star Alliance of airlines.
James Numfor, 38, from Regina, Saskatchewan, had been stranded in Toronto for two nights since returning from Cameroon for his brother’s funeral. Air Canada only provided one night in a hotel for his family before leaving them without further support, he said.
He had slept in the airport with his family.
(With inputs from Reuters)
