Air Canada flight attendants have gone on strike, resulting in the cancellation of hundreds of flights throughout Canada
Flight attendants at Air Canada went on strike for 72 hours, which grounded hundreds of flights and affected more than 130,000 people across the country.
Flight attendants at Air Canada went on strike early Saturday morning after pay talks with the country’s biggest airline broke down. This is the first strike by flight attendants since 1985, according to the union.
The 72-hour strike was announced on social media just before 1:00 ET (05:00 GMT) by the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), which is made up of more than 10,000 flight attendants.
Air Canada said that all flights by its mainline and cheap airline, Air Canada Rouge, had been canceled. However, flights by Air Canada Jazz and PAL Airlines would continue as planned.
The airline said in a statement, “About 130,000 customers will be affected each day that the strike continues.” They told people not to go to the airports unless they had confirmed tickets on other carriers.
The fight is about how much flight attendants should be paid. The flight workers are only paid when the plane is moving right now. People in the union want to be paid for the time they spend helping people and waiting for flights.
Air Canada had originally offered a 38% raise in pay over four years, with a 25% raise in the first year. However, the union felt this was not enough. The airline also wanted to pay for work that wasn’t being paid at the moment at only 50% of the hourly rate.
Air Canada, which is based in Montreal, planned to cancel 623 flights by Friday because of the busy summer travel season. This would have affected about 100,000 people. Flight attendants protested at major Canadian airports on Saturday, making people rush to make new reservations.
Freddy Ramos, 24, a passenger at Toronto’s Pearson International Airport, talked about several problems that made it impossible for him to continue his trip. “Our gate changed about 10 minutes before we were supposed to board, but then it was canceled, then it was delayed, and then it was canceled again,” he said.
Air Canada and Air Canada Rouge are the biggest foreign airlines with scheduled flights to the US, with about 130,000 passengers every day.
Passengers on social media have backed the strike, but Canadian businesses, which are already hurting from trade tensions with the US, want the federal government to force binding arbitration to settle the disagreement. Air Canada asked Prime Minister Mark Carney’s minority Liberal government to make arbitration happen, but CUPE is against this.
According to the Canada Labour Code, Patty Hajdu, the Minister of Jobs, can ask the Industrial Relations Board to force binding arbitration to protect the economy. However, she has constantly asked both sides to return to talks.
TD Cowen financial experts have warned that extending the dispute could lead to lost earnings that are greater than any savings in labor costs. They have asked the carrier to “extend an olive branch to end the impasse” and bring about peace in the workplace.
