Topline
After 10,000 Air Canada striking flight attendants refused a government back-to-work order, Canada’s flagship carrier was forced to suspend operations and pull its financial guidance—while canceling flights for half a million passengers.
Defying a federal back-to-work order, Air Canada flight attendants continued their strike at Toronto’s Pearson Airport on Sunday.
Toronto Star via Getty Images
Key Facts
On Sunday, 10,000 striking Air Canada flight attendants refused a government order to return to work—a defiance the Canadian Industrial Relations Board said was “unlawful.”
On Monday, Air Canada suspended its third-quarter and full-year guidance and cancelled all flights “until further notice.”
The ongoing labor dispute has forced Air Canada to cancel more than 2,300 flights over the past week—1,153 domestic and 1,165 international—according to data from Cirium, an aviation industry data and analytics firm.
The airline estimated 500,000 customers have been impacted by a canceled flight so far.
As of noon Monday, more than 550 Air Canada flights were canceled for the day, according to FlightAware data.
Air Canada stock was down more than 1.5% as of early Monday afternoon, while indexes were mostly flat.
Key Background
Air Canada’s labor agreement with its 10,000 flight attendants expired on March 31. After reaching an impasse following eight months of collective bargaining, Air Canada flight attendants walked off the job Saturday, around 1 a.m. Within 12 hours, the Canadian government intervened, asking the Canada Industrial Relations Board (CIRB) to impose binding arbitration. On Sunday, the CIRB ordered Air Canada flight attendants back to work. The union representing the flight attendants, the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), defied the order, forcing Air Canada to suspend its plan to resume operations Sunday. All Air Canada flights scheduled for Monday have been canceled.
When Will The Impasse End?
Nobody can say. Air Canada has decried the work stoppage as illegal, but flight attendants insist they are dug in. “Our members are not going back to work,” CUPE national president Mark Hancock told reporters outside Toronto’s Pearson International Airport. “We are saying no.” Video taken at Pearson on Monday shows flight attendants chanting “Don’t blame me, blame AC.”
What Should Air Canada Passengers Do If They Were Scheduled To Fly?
“All Air Canada and Air Canada Rouge flights are canceled due to CUPE’s actions,” Air Canada’s website advised passengers Monday. “Please do not head to the airport, as flights are not operating.” Air Canada passengers who are ticketed to travel between now and Aug. 22 can rebook travel at no extra cost for an alternative date between Aug. 23 and Sept. 30.
Why Are Air Canada’s Flight Attendants Striking?
The main issue in the labor dispute is boarding pay—a longtime bone of contention for flight attendants around the world. Like the majority of airlines worldwide, Air Canada only pays flight attendants for their time when aircraft doors are closed for a flight and not for boarding time—when flight attendants are on duty before and after the flight, assisting passengers, checking the galley, giving safety demonstrations and performing other required tasks. “It’s time for a fair deal, including the new industry standard of boarding pay and other time currently unpaid at work,” Sara Nelson, president of the U.S.-based Association of Flight Attendants (AFA), said in a statement. The AFA, which represents more than 50,000 flight attendants at 20 airlines, has backed the Air Canada flight attendants, saying the carrier “pays a poverty wage for the work of aviation’s first responders and that has to change.”
Crucial Quote
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney told reporters Monday it was “disappointing” that contract negotiations came to an impasse, adding, “We are in a situation where literally hundreds of thousands of Canadians and visitors to our country are being disrupted by this action.” Carney nodded to “the critical role that flight attendants play in keeping Canadians and their families safe as they travel,” noting “it’s important that they’re compensated equitably.”
Do U.s. Airlines Pay Flight Attendants For Boarding Time?
Some major U.S. carriers do, but they only started to recently. In 2022, Delta Air Lines became the first major carrier to pay flight attendants for boarding time, at 50% of their hourly rate, to stave off a unionization drive. (The Atlanta-based carrier is the only major U.S. airline without unionized flight attendants.) This year, American Airlines and Alaska Airlines also began paying flight attendants for boarding time at half the hourly pay rate, following lengthy labor contract negotiations. A tentative agreement between United Airlines and its flight attendants union included boarding pay but was not ratified, so the carrier is still not paying for boarding time. Southwest Airlines does not pay flight attendants for boarding time.
Tangent
The median wage for flight attendants in the U.S. last year was $67,130, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data.
Further Reading
Here’s Why Thousands Of Flight Attendants Are Threatening To Strike (Forbes)
