Air Canada suspends restart plans after flight attendants union defies return to work order

Air Canada stated it suspended plans to restart operations on Sunday (August 17, 2025) after the union representing 10,000 flight attendants stated it is going to defy a return to work order. The strike was already affecting about 130,000 travellers around the globe per day throughout the peak summer time journey season.

The Canada Industrial Relations Board ordered airline workers again to work by 2 p.m. on Sunday after the federal government intervened and Air Canada stated it deliberate to renew flights Sunday night.

Canada’s largest airline now says it is going to resume flights Monday night. Air Canada stated in a press release that the union “illegally directed its flight attendant members to defy a path from the Canadian Industrial Relations Board.”

“Our members should not going again to work,” Canadian Union of Public Employees nationwide president Mark Hancock stated outdoors Toronto’s Pearson International Airport. “We are saying no.”

The federal authorities did not instantly present touch upon the union refusing to return to work.

Hancock stated the “entire course of has been unfair” and stated the union will problem what it referred to as an unconstitutional order.

“Air Canada has actually refused to discount with us they usually refused to discount with us as a result of they knew this authorities would are available on their white horse and try to save the day,” he stated.

The nation’s largest airline had stated early Sunday in a launch that the primary flights would resume later within the day however that it’ll take a number of days earlier than its operations return to regular. It stated some flights can be cancelled over the following seven to 10 days till the schedule is stabilized.

Less than 12 hours after employees walked off the job, Federal Jobs Minister Patty Hajdu ordered the ten,000 flight attendants again to work, saying now just isn’t the time to take dangers with the financial system and noting the unprecedented tariffs the U.S. has imposed on Canada. Hajdu referred the work stoppage to the Canada Industrial Relations Board.

The airline stated the CIRB has prolonged the time period of the prevailing collective settlement till a brand new one is set by the arbitrator.

The shutdown of Canada’s largest airline early Saturday was impacting about 130,000 individuals a day. Air Canada operates round 700 flights per day.

Flight attendants walked off the job round 1 a.m. EDT on Saturday. Around the identical time, Air Canada stated it might start locking flight attendants out of airports.

The bitter contract struggle escalated Friday because the union turned down Air Canada’s prior request to enter into government-directed arbitration, which permits a third-party mediator to determine the phrases of a brand new contract.

Last 12 months, the federal government pressured the nation’s two main railroads into arbitration with their labour union throughout a piece stoppage. The union for the rail employees is suing, arguing the federal government is eradicating a union’s leverage in negotiations.

The Business Council of Canada had urged the federal government to impose binding arbitration on this case, too. And the Canadian Chamber of Commerce welcomed the intervention.

Hajdu maintained that her Liberal authorities just isn’t anti-union, saying it’s clear the 2 sides are at an deadlock.

Passengers whose flights are impacted can be eligible to request a full refund on the airline’s web site or cellular app, based on Air Canada.

The airline stated it might additionally supply various journey choices by way of different Canadian and international airways when attainable. Still, it warned that it couldn’t assure quick rebooking as a result of flights on different airways are already full “because of the summer time journey peak.”

Air Canada and CUPE have been in contract talks for about eight months, however they’ve but to achieve a tentative deal. Both sides have stated they continue to be far aside on the problem of pay and the unpaid work flight attendants do when planes aren’t within the air.

The airline’s newest supply included a 38% enhance in whole compensation, together with advantages and pensions, over 4 years, that it stated “would have made our flight attendants the very best compensated in Canada.”

But the union pushed again, saying the proposed 8% increase within the first 12 months did not go far sufficient due to inflation.