Strike continues at Air Canada, planes grounded despite return-to-work order

The strike at Air Canada continues despite pressure. The airline announced on Sunday, August 17, that it would not be able to resume flights after its flight attendants decided to defy an administrative decision, continuing their movement to demand better pay.

Flights will ultimately not resume anytime soon, despite a signal to that effect sent Sunday morning. The labor dispute paralyzing Canada's largest airline appears to be at an impasse. Air Canada "suspended its plans to partially resume flights […] after the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) illegally ordered its flight attendants to disobey a directive from the Canada Industrial Relations Board ordering them to return to work," the company stated on its website.

On Saturday morning, flight attendants at the airline walked out at the call of the CUPE union, forcing the airline to cancel hundreds of flights at the height of the summer season. Faced with this social crisis, which threatens to increase the "financial burden" of Canadians, the government decided on Saturday to intervene and force both parties to resort to independent arbitration.

The Canada Industrial Relations Board, requested, "ordered Air Canada to resume its operations and all flight attendants of Air Canada and Air Canada Rouge [Air Canada's low-cost subsidiary, editor's note] to return to their duties before 2 p.m.", the airline announced on Sunday.

But the CUPE union, which represents the strikers, called on its members to defy this directive. "The union affirms that its members will remain on strike until their demands for wages and ground time compensation are met," it wrote on its website.

In addition to pay increases, flight attendants are demanding that their ground work hours, such as during passenger boarding, be recorded, which is not currently the case.

The union had earlier denounced the Liberal government's intervention and the existence, according to it, of a "conflict of interest" between Maryse Tremblay, the chair of the board responsible for arbitrating the case, and the airline. Maryse Tremblay had previously worked as a legal advisor for Air Canada.

"We urge Air Canada to return to the bargaining table to reach a fair agreement, rather than relying on the federal government to do the dirty work for them when negotiations get a little difficult," the union said in a statement. The company detailed a compromise offer last Thursday that would raise the average annual salary of a senior flight attendant to 87,000 Canadian dollars, or 54,000 euros, by 2027, but CUPE deemed the proposals insufficient, particularly in light of inflation.

This is not the first time the Canadian government has intervened in a labor dispute. In November 2024, it ordered the immediate resumption of operations at several Canadian ports, and in August of the same year, the return of railway workers to work.

The Canadian economy, while showing signs of resilience, is beginning to feel the effects of Donald Trump's trade war . The US president set tariffs at 35% , affecting crucial sectors for the country such as automobiles, aluminum and steel.

In this context, the Canadian Business Council, which brings together executives from more than 100 major companies, judged that the strike was likely to cause "immediate and considerable harm to all Canadians." Air Canada carries 130,000 passengers a day to 180 cities worldwide.