Air Canada flight attendants during a demonstration at Toronto Pearson International Airport. Photo courtesy CUPE.

On August 16, 10,000 Air Canada flight attendants walked off the job. Three days earlier, their union, the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), had issued a 72-hour strike notice. In response, the airline served its own lockout notice, warning that it would cancel flights worldwide. The showdown came after months of stalled negotiations following the expiry of the attendants’ decade-old collective agreement in March. The strike did not last even a single day before the Carney government referred the parties to binding arbitration.

A central issue in the negotiations is the flight attendants’ “ground pay.” Under the current system, they are only paid for time in the air, leaving the hours spent working before and after takeoff uncompensated. According to the union, this means newly hired attendants effectively earn less than $12 an hour, which is below Canada’s minimum wage.

Despite challenges from Canada’s trade war with the United States and a decline in cross-border tourism, Air Canada has performed well financially since 2022. Critics of the airline have also pointed out that CEO Michael Rousseau received $12.08 million in compensation in 2023-2024, including his base salary of $1.3 million plus stocks and options.

Flight cancellations resulting from the strike were to impact 130,000 passengers a day, with 25,000 Canadians being stranded abroad. Despite Air Canada’s announcement of a lockout, only 34 flights were cancelled by August 14, with that number climbing to 294 by noon on August 15. Most cancellations came just hours before the strike, and even after it began, some passengers said their flights were never “officially” cancelled, preventing them from........

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