Air Canada reaches deal with flight attendants union to end strike
The agreement came after Canada’s biggest airline and the union resumed talks late on Monday.
Air Canada said it would gradually restart operations after reaching an agreement with the union for 10,000 flight attendants to end a strike that disrupted the travel plans of hundreds of thousands of passengers.
The agreement came after Canada’s biggest airline and the union resumed talks late on Monday for the first time since the strike began over the weekend, affecting about 130,000 travellers a day at the peak of the summer travel season.
Air Canada said flights would start resuming at 4pm Eastern Time.
Flight attendants walked off the job early on Saturday after turning down the airline’s request to enter into government-directed arbitration, which allows a third-party mediator to decide the terms of a new contract.
The union said the agreement would guarantee members pay for work performed while planes were on the ground, resolving one of the major issues that drove the strike.
“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.”
Chief executive Michael Rousseau said restarting a major carrier was a complex undertaking and said regular service may require seven to 10 days.
Some flights would be cancelled until the schedule was stabilised.
“Full restoration may require a week or more, so we ask for our customers’ patience and understanding over the coming days,” Mr Rousseau said in a statement.
The two sides reached the deal with the help of a mediator early on Tuesday morning.
The Canada Industrial Relations Board had declared the strike illegal on Monday and ordered the flight attendants back on the job. But the union said it would defy the directive. Union leaders also ignored a weekend order to submit to binding arbitration and end the strike by Sunday afternoon.
The board is an independent administrative tribunal that interprets and applies Canada’s labour laws. The government ordered the board to intervene.
