Hundreds of Air Canada flight attendants picket at Toronto Pearson Airport on Monday. Nearly all CUPE flight attendants voted in favour of a strike.Sammy Kogan/The Globe and Mail
Air Canada and the union representing flight attendants returned to the bargaining table on Tuesday afternoon, after negotiations were on the verge of breaking down earlier this week over Air Canada’s proposal to involve a third-party arbitrator to resolve the labour dispute.
Air Canada AC-T and the Air Canada Component of the Canadian Union of Public Employees, which represents 10,400 flight attendants, have been negotiating for a new collective agreement since December of 2024, with little success.
If a deal is not reached by the end of today, CUPE could issue a 72-hour strike notice which means a strike of Air Canada and Air Canada Rouge flight attendants could begin on Saturday at 12:01 a.m.
According to a copy of a letter sent by Air Canada to the union on August 11 and obtained by The Globe and Mail, the airline requested that CUPE agree to refer the negotiation to binding interest arbitration at the Canadian Industrial Relations Board, arguing that involving a federal arbitrator would allow all parties to “move forward without further delay and uncertainty.”
The role of an arbitrator at the federal labour board is to resolve unsettled terms in a new collective agreement, and essentially force the parties to agree upon a new deal within a set timeline. Air Canada has used the Canada Industrial Relations Board to resolve negotiations in the past, specifically in 2011 to settle a dispute with flight attendants over wages and pensions.
Explainer: Air Canada flight attendants could strike on Saturday. Here’s what you need to know
In a response letter from the union dated August 12 and obtained by The Globe, Wesley Lesosky, president of the Air Canada Component of CUPE declined the proposal to proceed to binding arbitration, calling it “not an appropriate path in this round of bargaining.” He urged Air Canada to continue to negotiate at the bargaining table.
One of the key points of contention between both sides is the issue of unpaid work. The union argues that flight attendants should be paid for the work they do before the airline takes off and after it lands. They are currently compensated an hourly rate from the time the airline takes off to the point where it lands, but are not paid during boarding, safety checks and deplaning, a common practice in the industry.
A person familiar with negotiations, who declined to be named because they were not authorized to speak to the media, said that the airline had offered to begin compensating flight attendants for some of these duties, but only at 50 per cent of their hourly rate.
On the issue of wages, the person said Air Canada offered an 8 per cent increase for the first year of a new four-year contract, and a 17.2 per cent wage increase over four years.
Air Canada declined to comment on queries related to their wage offer and the current state of negotiations.
Air Canada and the flight attendants’ union returned to the bargaining table on Tuesday afternoon.Sammy Kogan/The Globe and Mail
CUPE flight attendants delivered one of the strongest strike mandates in recent Canadian labour history, with 99.7 per cent voting in favour of a strike, and 94.6 per cent of more than 10,000 members turning out to vote. They had been locked into a 10-year collective agreement since March 2015.
According to the union, flight attendants work an average of 35 hours per month for free, almost a week’s worth of pay. The union surveyed flight attendants between December of 2022 and January of 2023 and found that nearly 99 per cent of flight attendants do not get paid while assisting passengers disembarking planes, and 98 per cent said they did not get paid when planes are held at the gate.
A backgrounder on Air Canada’s website detailing flight attendant compensation states that the starting salary for a flight attendant hired in 2015 was $25.13 an hour. If the flight attendant continued working in the same position for a decade, their current pay would be $63.07 an hour, a 150 per-cent increase. The document also stated that half of Air Canada’s flight attendants earned more than $54,000 in 2024, excluding incentive rewards, and health and pension benefits.
Air Canada’s operating revenue has increased substantially over the past four years since bottoming out in 2021, at the height of the pandemic. In its latest quarter ending June, 2025, Air Canada generated $5.6-billion in revenue and net income of $186-million.