Air Canada Halts Plan To Restart Flights After Flight Attendants Reject Return-to-Work Order

Air Canada is suspending plans to restart operations on Sunday after the union representing 10,000 flight attendants said it will defy a return to work order. The strike was already affecting about 130,000 travelers around the world per day during the peak summer travel season.The Canada Industrial Relations Board ordered airline staff back to work by 2 p.m. Sunday after the government intervened and Air Canada said it planned to resume flights Sunday evening.Canada’s largest airline now says it will resume flights Monday evening. Air Canada said in a statement that the union “illegally directed its flight attendant members to defy a direction from the Canadian Industrial Relations Board.”“Our members are not going back to work,” Canadian Union of Public Employees national president Mark Hancock said outside Toronto’s Pearson International Airport. “We are saying no.”The federal government didn’t immediately provide comment on the union refusing to return to work.Mr. Hancock said the “whole process has been unfair” and said the union will challenge what it called an unconstitutional order.“Air Canada has really refused to bargain with us and they refused to bargain with us because they knew this government would come in on their white horse and try and save the day,” he said.The country’s largest airline had said early Sunday in a release that the first flights would resume later in the day but that it will take several days before its operations return to normal. It said some flights will be canceled over the next seven to 10 days until the schedule is stabilized.Less than 12 hours after workers walked off the job, Federal Jobs Minister Patty Hajdu ordered the 10,000 flight attendants back to work, saying now is not the time to take risks with the economy and noting the unprecedented tariffs the United States has imposed on Canada. Ms. Hajdu referred the work stoppage to the Canada Industrial Relations Board.The airline said the CIRB has extended the term of the existing collective agreement until a new one is determined by the arbitrator.The shutdown of Canada’s largest airline early Saturday was impacting about 130,000 people a day. Air Canada operates around 700 flights per day.Flight attendants walked off the job around 1 a.m. on Saturday. Around the same time, Air Canada said it would begin locking flight attendants out of airports.Passengers whose flights are impacted will be eligible to request a full refund on the airline’s website or mobile app, according to Air Canada.The airline said it would also offer alternative travel options through other Canadian and foreign airlines when possible. Still, it warned that it could not guarantee immediate rebooking because flights on other airlines are already full “due to the summer travel peak.”Air Canada and CUPE have been in contract talks for about eight months, but they have yet to reach a tentative deal. Both sides have said they remain far apart on the issue of pay and the unpaid work flight attendants do when planes aren’t in the air.The airline’s latest offer included a 38 percent increase in total compensation, including benefits and pensions, over four years, that it said “would have made our flight attendants the best compensated in Canada.”But the union pushed back, saying the proposed 8 percent raise in the first year didn’t go far enough because of inflation.

Air Canada Halts Plan To Restart Flights After Flight Attendants Reject Return-to-Work Order

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