Air Canada and its flight attendants union have reached a settlement to end what the government declared to be an illegal strike. Terms have not been disclosed. Flights begin resuming this evening.
Air Canada says returning to full, regular service will take 7 to 10 days due to aircraft and crew being out of position.
The work stoppage affected about hundreds of thousands of passengers. Air Canada withdrew its third quarter and full-year guidance.
While cracking down on the union, the government sought to appear ‘balanced’ by announcing a probe into alleged unpaid work in the airline sector – which is 100% false. Higher pay for flight time while not paying ground time has long been union negotiated and favored by senior cabin crew who fly fewer, longer flights – and is a structure that benefits them at the expense of junior crew who spend relatively more time boarding (since they tend to work more, shorter flights).
What To Do Now if You’re Booked on Air Canada
- Check flight status before leaving home. Only travel to the airport if your flight shows as operating in the Air Canada app or website. Mainline and Rouge are resuming, but full normalization will take 7–10 days.
- Refunds: If you booked on/before August 15 for travel Aug 18 – 21 on Air Canada or Rouge, you can still request a refund for the unused portion of your ticket.
- Flexible changes: If you booked on or before August 17 for travel August 15 – 22, you can rebook for August 23 – September 30 without fees.
- Other airline options: Where seats exist, Air Canada says it will rebook customers on other carriers. Expect limited space since Air Canada is about half of the country’s capacity.
While we look forward to settlement details, cabin crew will certainly be earning more. Air Canada says they’d offered a 38% increase over four years, with a 25% first-year increase, prior to the strike. So presumably this offer was better.
I hope they will prioritize Canadians trying to return.
It’s not 100% false.. not sure where you got that number.
That was faster than I expected.
Hope the flight attendants got a better deal and are happy. While nothing is ever ‘perfect,’ even incremental improvements are worth the fight.
And yes, ideally the airline can minimize disruption to passengers. Get flyin’ again!
Wonder if United’s flight attendants will follow… *stirs the pot* *pokes the beehive*
I love how AC says that it will take them at least a week to get back to normal operations, but they will only provide refunds for flights for the next 2 days. Flight flexibility means nothing if you need to be somewhere this weekend.
Knowing you can’t operate a full, normal schedule for another 7-10 days and refusing refunds for the majority of it is something that the government should call illegal.
So I guess that 70% bet isn’t going to pay out.
We all knew a Canadian airline wouldn’t have the balls to stand up to a union. In typical Canadian fashion, they snatched defeat from the jaws of victory, taking a massive financial hit while gaining nothing. They could have rid themselves of the leach unskilled labor union once and for all.
Ok, back to things that matter (Canada not being one such thing).
The scum management never intended to bargain in good faith. Their only plan was to have the govt step in.
When that failed, they were caught with their incompetent pants down without a plan and caved in quickly
Massive victory for the union. Well done!
Now it will take 7 days to restore service lol. Incompetent management fools.
@Mantis — Cry harder.
You are an idiot. You clearly are gullible and believe everything you read. The company never offered 38% raises. They offered that as “compensation” over 4 years. The wage increase was 8%. Hence why the FAs went on strike. And it was unlawful but not criminal. And it will be held up in the Supreme Court when they finally deal with this in several years. They almost always rule for the right to strike.
Yay! Another win for big profitable corporations against the little guy.
let’s see the details but the Canadian government was not about to accept responsibility and undoubtedly told both sides it would not go after either side if they figured out a settlement.
It will be interesting to see what AC agreed to in terms of compensation for work done outside of when the aircraft door is closed. those FAs could have changed the way that FAs are compensated worldwide. DL started w/ boarding pay which has spread throughout the US but, depending on what the AC FAs won, this could be a big step towards compensating crew members for all of their time on the job.
and it is a given that the pilots will ask for something similar.
@Tim Dunn — Well said. You are absolutely right that precedents set in Canada or elsewhere can make an impact in the USA; after all, we’re all humans, and these are similar roles. So, we’ll see about the details soon enough…
As I mentioned recently in one of the other posts, I applaud Delta’s management for its compromise with flight attendants to add boarding pay since 2022. While I continue to think it would be even more advantageous for Delta’s flight attendants, fleet service workers, and mechanics to join Delta’s pilots (since 1934!) and dispatchers in organizing, at least for now that airline’s management seems open and responsive to improving conditions, compensation, and benefits for their workers.
“Higher pay for flight time while not paying ground time has long been union negotiated and favored by senior cabin crew who fly fewer, longer flights – and is a structure that benefits them at the expense of junior crew who spend relatively more time boarding (since they tend to work more, shorter flights).”
Dude, it remains the case that FAs were not paid for non-flight time and in this case, the union was in favor of it, so your point is not only ridiculous but so clearly reaching for something to be anti-union.
@Total — Thank you for also calling it out. I’ve said before, these are silly attempts to ‘divide and conquer’ by pitting older vs. newer flight attendants against each other; don’t take the bait, folks.
keep in mind that UA could be in the crosshairs w/ this if AC’s FAs receive significantly more than just boarding pay esp. since UA’s FAs complained that their schedules were getting less efficient – which the company could blame on not being able to use PBS.
I would imagine most Americans would support the idea that crew members – including pilots should get more pay for non-flying time.
many airlines do have time away from base pay which is a minimal hourly stipend.
As usual, this all could have been avoided if those involved lived in a free society. In a free society, union membership and collective bargaining would be voluntary, and employers would be free to recognize or ignore a union of employees. In a free society, it would be perfectly legal to fire workers who strike or otherwise refuse to work.
Unions, as currently structured in most countries, represent a violation of individual rights for both the employees and their employers. Government laws are the cause of most of these disputes. Remove the government from the equation and these type of issues would disappear.
@Mike P — Wrong as usual; both Canada (and the USA) are ‘free’ by most, if not all, relevant standards. You, sir, are a chaos agent. Take your anarcho-libertarianism and go live in the woods. No more ‘sovereign citizen’ nonsense on here either, please. And, I’ll do the quote for you this time: “We live in a society” — George Costanza
Which part is wrong? Instead of offering your typical mindless retorts, point out my errors.
@Mike P — All of it; always. You didn’t say what was wrong about my statement either. Oh no! ‘I accept your surrender!’
Oh, well look at that looks like their union secured ground time pay. Not even the purple cult has that. Okay, union!
“All of it; always.”, is a empty, mindless retort and doesn’t address an error in my statement. Give us details. I know you can’t refute my position, but it’s always fun to see you try.
@Mike P — You’ve never been a serious person on here. Usually bashing unions, or anything you deem ‘woke,’ while offering no solutions and never sharing anything relevant to travel, airlines, hotel, credit cards, etc. You and a few others (where’s @Andy S and @Walter Barry, or is @David R. Miller one of your new aliases, eh, you’re probably all the same guy) are just right-wing dis-info fake-triots. Here, you were a bit late on this topic (the union and its members appear to have a deal); so, I guess your checks from Putin were delayed (aww). Try to be here sooner next time.
@Gary: “Higher pay for flight time while not paying ground time has long been union negotiated and favored by senior cabin crew who fly fewer, longer flights – and is a structure that benefits them at the expense of junior crew who spend relatively more time boarding (since they tend to work more, shorter flights).” Keep repeating this truth. Apparently some here don’t like to see this spelled out, so they waive their hands and say “not true, not true,” as if that’s a valid debate stance.
@Mike P. Blah blah libertarian blah blah. I mean to be fair, you make Gar look more reasonable so well done.
We can add “Total” to the group of people unable to refute my position. Gosh, the inability of people to apply critical thinking is stunning.