Air Canada’s operations remained paralyzed on Monday as striking flight attendants defied a government-backed order to resume work, demanding that the airline return to the negotiating table.
The disruption has left hundreds of planes grounded and affected more than 130,000 daily passengers, with the airline forced to delay its planned restart of services from Sunday to Monday evening.
The Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), representing 10,000 cabin crew, rejected the Canada Industrial Relations Board’s (CIRB) binding arbitration order, calling it unconstitutional. The union insisted that arbitration would ease pressure on the airline and reiterated its demand for a negotiated settlement.
At the heart of the dispute is pay for ground duties such as boarding passengers. Air Canada attendants are only compensated when planes are moving, a practice the union argues is outdated. Similar campaigns by flight attendants in the United States recently won new contracts at American Airlines and Alaska Airlines, which now pay crews during boarding.
The standoff has triggered growing public frustration, with travellers stranded at Toronto Pearson International Airport over the weekend. Many expressed confusion about when flights would resume.
The Liberal government of Prime Minister Mark Carney had invoked Section 107 of federal labour rules on Saturday to push for binding arbitration, a rare move intended to end the strike. While previous governments have intervened in strikes affecting rail and docks, it is highly unusual for a union to openly defy a CIRB order.
The government now faces tough choices, including seeking a court ruling to enforce the order or pushing emergency legislation through parliament, which is in recess until September 15.
Air Canada described the strike as an “illegal defiance” of the labour board, while CUPE maintained it was fighting for “a fair deal” that properly values attendants’ work.
