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Over 10,000 Air Canada flight attendants have gone on strike in a first of its kind action since 1985, effectively leaving up to 700 daily flights getting grounded and causing widespread travel disruptions for over 130,000 passengers at the peak of the summer season, news agency Reuters reported on Monday. The Air Canada strike began early Saturday when cabin crew walked off their respective jobs following a breakdown in contract talks.

Govt Orders Strike to End, But Union Refuses

Meanwhile, the Canada Industrial Relations Board (CIRB) declared the strike illegal and issued a back-to-work order by Sunday afternoon, extending the expired collective agreement until a new deal is reached, the report said.  However, the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) rejected the order, calling it “unconstitutional”. The union is reportedly demanding further negotiations.

Prime Minister Mark Carney voiced concerns, saying that “hundreds of thousands of Canadians and visitors… are being disrupted” and urged both sides to resolve the dispute in a swift manner.

Air Canada Pushes Back, Cancels Forecast

With the strike entering its third day on Monday, Air Canada postponed its plans to ramp up operations. In a move underlining growing financial concerns, the airline withdrew its Q3 and full-year earnings guidance, citing the labour disruption as the root cause, CNBC reported.

Meanwhile, Air Canada’s Vice-President of in-flight service Andrew Yiu warned flight attendants that they would be held personally accountable if they continued to defy the board’s directive, per Reuters.

Core Issue: Pay for Ground Work

At the center of the dispute is compensation: flight attendants say they are only paid when planes are moving, with no compensation, whatsoever, for the time spent on other tasks, including boarding process. The CUPE is demanding pay parity with Air Transat’s crew, who recently won significant wage gains. In the US, major airline carriers like American and Alaska have already begun paying attendants for pre-flight duties, according to the US-based news agency.

Legal and Political Tightrope

The union’s refusal to comply puts both the CUPE and individual leaders at risk of penalties under the Canada Labour Code, which allows fines of up to CAD 1,000 per day for the union and CAD 10,000 for individuals, reports say.

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