Ontario (BN24) – Air Canada and the union representing more than 10,000 flight attendants announced early Tuesday that they had reached a tentative agreement, ending a disruptive strike that had stranded hundreds of thousands of travelers during the peak of the summer holiday season.
The breakthrough came late Monday after the airline and the Canadian Union of Public Employees resumed negotiations for the first time since the walkout began over the weekend. The strike, which had been declared illegal by federal labor regulators, was causing massive flight cancellations and affecting an estimated 130,000 passengers daily.
Union leaders hailed the agreement as a decisive victory, saying it addressed one of the central grievances that sparked the job action: the lack of compensation for time spent working on the ground. “Unpaid work is over. We have reclaimed our voice and our power,” the union said in a statement. “When our rights were taken away, we stood strong, we fought back — and we secured a tentative agreement that our members can vote on.”
The deal came just hours after the union openly defied the Canada Industrial Relations Board, which had declared the strike illegal and twice ordered flight attendants to return to work. The government had directed the board to intervene under Canadian labor law, a move that union leaders condemned as an erosion of workers’ right to strike.
For several days, Air Canada scrambled to manage the fallout. The airline operates roughly 700 flights daily, and by Monday it had already canceled more than 2,500 flights, both domestic and international, according to aviation data firm Cirium. The carrier estimated that as many as half a million customers had been affected by rolling cancellations since last Thursday, when the airline began scaling back operations in anticipation of the strike.
Air Canada had offered what it described as a 38% increase in total compensation, including pensions and benefits, over a four-year contract, insisting that the deal would make its flight attendants the best compensated in Canada. But the union countered that the offer did not adequately address the cost of living, arguing that an 8% wage hike in the first year fell short of inflation.
The tentative agreement now gives the union’s members the chance to vote on a contract that directly tackles unpaid ground duties, a long-standing issue that flight attendants said forced them to work without proper compensation.
Passengers whose flights were canceled will be eligible for full refunds through Air Canada’s website and mobile app, the airline said.
The strike and its resolution underscore broader tensions in Canada’s labor landscape. In recent years, the federal government has repeatedly stepped in to restrict strikes by port, rail and other essential workers, often ordering them into binding arbitration. Union leaders argue that such interventions weaken collective bargaining power and diminish workers’ leverage.
The agreement with Air Canada marks the end of one of the most high-profile labor disputes in Canada’s aviation sector in years, though it remains subject to member approval before taking effect.
