Air Canada union says flight attendants will continue strike, defy government

https://www.reuters.com/business/world-at-work/air-canada-union-says-flight-attendants-will-continue-strike-defy-government-2025-08-17/

26 comments

  1. The right decision to make.

    Air Canada has always been bailed out by the government and their own employees, multiple times.

    Either deem them essential and nationalize the service (if you are forcing them into arbitration at every opportunity, it is clear there is no reasonable negotiating going on) or pay them the hours they are working for. No more percentages being thrown out, just pay the damn workers.

  2. Good for the attendants.
    Their salaries are disgustingly low and their working conditions are miserable and unhealthy. 
    They were on strike for 12 hours. There have been blizzards that grounded flights longer than they were allowed to strike.
    There’s no point to a protest if it doesn’t cause disruption.

  3. I feel for the passengers that will be crazy disrupted by this, but ultimately it’s the right move to make and I support the workers. Corporations for too long have been profiting off consumer’s inability to accept very temporary inconveniences and expenses and look what it’s done to our society. It’s time to stand up. 

  4. Air Canada workers are striking for fair wages, but the people pulling the strings refuse to listen. These are the wolves feeding off Canadian labor:

    ⸻

    Executive Leadership

    • Michael Rousseau – President & CEO, based in Montreal. Pocketed over $12 million in 2022, a massive raise while workers were denied fair increases.

    • Craig Landry – Chief Operating Officer. Focuses on cutting operational costs while ignoring workers’ demands.

    • John di Bert – Chief Financial Officer. Ensures shareholder profits come before employees’ paychecks.

    • Arielle Meloul-Wechsler – EVP, Chief Human Resources & Public Affairs. Supposed to represent employees, but stands on the corporate side in labor disputes.

    • Marc Barbeau – EVP, Chief Legal Officer. Manages legal strategy to protect Air Canada from its own workforce.

    ⸻

    Board of Directors

    These are the gatekeepers who approve strategy, executive pay, and labor policy:

    • Vagn Ove Sørensen – Chair of the Board. Danish businessman, not tied to Canadian workers’ realities.

    • Kathleen Taylor – Former Four Seasons Hotels CEO.

    • Annette Verschuren – Former President of Home Depot Canada.

    • Christie Clark – Finance executive.

    • Mike Wilson – Mining executive.

    • Madeleine Paquin – CEO of Logistec Corporation.

    • Robert Fyfe – Former CEO of Air New Zealand, not Canadian.

    • Jean Huot – Finance and technology executive.

    • Michael Green – New Zealand business executive.

    These directors are elites from business, finance, mining, and hospitality. They are far removed from the day-to-day struggles of flight attendants, ground staff, and pilots.

    ⸻

    Institutional Investors

    The real pressure behind Air Canada’s decisions comes from global financial giants who demand profits above all else:

    • RBC Global Asset Management (Canada)
    • The Vanguard Group (USA)
    • FMR LLC / Fidelity (USA)
    • BlackRock (USA)
    • Dimensional Fund Advisors (USA)
    • Lazard Asset Management (USA/France)
    • BMO Asset Management (Canada)
    • Norges Bank Investment Management
    • CI Global Asset Management (Canada)

    These institutions hold major shares in Air Canada and pressure management to cut costs, squeeze workers, and maximize dividends.

    ⸻

    The Big Picture

    Air Canada is branded as a Canadian airline, but look who controls it: global investors, foreign board members, and Canadian elites whose loyalty lies with profit, not people.

    Workers keep this airline alive. Executives and shareholders extract the wealth. That’s why Air Canada employees are on strike — and why the public should see clearly who the wolves of man really are.

  5. Fuck the feds. Maybe they can force AC to raise wages instead of trying to squabble the whole thing.

  6. Air travel is optional, we need air transport of goods for the economy, but that doesn’t require flight attendants.

    Air canada should face the economic losses of Air travel for at least a week before the government interferes. Air Canada often has strikes and abuses government intervention to their benefit in strike management.

  8. Good.

    I don’t understand why anyone in any sector listens when the government mandates them back to work.

    The right call is always to stay together and refuse. They’re mandating you back because they NEED you. That’s YOUR card to play in the negotiation, not theirs.

    It applies to every important sector. Postal, teachers, nurses, etc.

  9. Good. Canadian governments have done nothing but shit all over the working class for the past decade++, whether it’s through citing fake “labour shortages” as the reason to suppress wages by injecting the economy with hundreds of thousands of low-wage labourers, or by repeatedly stifling any strike of late. There is zero voice for the working class at this point.

    It doesn’t help that we suffer from severe crab mentality as a people as well, where so many people will root against anyone fighting for improved working conditions if it doesn’t impact them directly. As if our cost of living doesn’t continue to skyrocket making it all the more necessary to collectively fight for better working conditions and wages.

  10. Funny how when corporate wants arbitration Carney grants it immediately; but when union wants arbitration (Canada Post) he won’t grant it

  11. Carney government first major fuck up. 4 months in. 

    12 hours. Not even a full day of strike. They had the back to work legislation ready to go. Despicable. Air Canada didn’t even bother to negotiate because they knew they’d order them back 

  12. In Canadian law, what will happen if the union goes through with defying the forced arbitration order? I doubt it’ll be sending their equivalent of the national guard to strike bust but I don’t see the government taking this laying down

  13. Flight attendants are getting fleeced with their pay, the fact that they aren’t paid every minute they’re on the clock is absolute robbery.

    The members of government who are standing by Air Canada and who wanted to end this strike immediately should be ashamed of themselves. I wish Canada didn’t keep voting for the same two parties that have firm track records and union busting.

  14. I was shocked to learn that apparently flight attendants at many airlines only get paid for the time they are actually in the air, not all the stuff they do while a plane is still on the ground.

    Given how many passanger freakout videos are on the net, it seems weird that the people having to deal with those often don’t even get paid for that part, because the plane hadn’t left the ground yet.

    I am a firm believer in people getting paid for the time they actually are on the job and the only argument that airlines seem to have against it appear to be that it would cost them money.

  15. Absolutely the right decision. Our government should have never ever stepped in. I voted for Carney and I absolutely do not approve. 

  16. I am getting tired of the ordering unions back to work. I have never been a union employee. The power of union is in the collective. Ordering the collective back to work defeats the purpose of the union.

  17. What’s the point of unions if the feds always step in to force back to work anyway… always taking the side of their oligopoly buddies

  20. the gov’t breaks strikes too early, it’s a business-friendly sham is what it is.

  21. Good for CUPE and the flight attendants. AC management needs to wear this black eye for a long time, Carney has severely misjudged public opinion on labour relations and if he keeps using section 107 he may become a one term PM. The government needs to back off and AC needs to get back to the table.

  23. Good for them. Pilots and Flight Attendants and all non c-suite employees of Air Canada deserve so much more.

    I’ve kinda been unhappy with service by Air Canada in recent years. Had a shorter flight with Air Canada and asked for a bit of warm water for meds and bc I was feeling a bit sick— FA handed me a cup of ice, refused when I tried to clarify and ask again then sat in an adjacent seat to scroll her phone. But I saw the pay and get it, the low morale and all. Customer service never does anything beyond saying they’ll pass your feedback onto management.

    Air Canada is often the only option and we end up having to put up with it. Though I am curious how much more carriers in Europe and East Asia pay and the differences in benefits. Bc their service is on a different level.

    Same with transit workers! They always need to go on strike bc pay is poor. Whenever people try to support them the local government blames it on people not paying their fares. I use transit everyday and haven’t seen anyone jumping the pay terminal and going into the station.

  24. Good, mandatory unpaid labor should be prohibited outright. If the flight attendants are working, I don’t give a fuck if the doors are closed or open, I also don’t give a fuck if the breaks are on or not. The only thing that should matter is if they are working and they should be paid for that work. They aren’t fucking slaves.

  25. We’re all glad we avoided Poilievre but fuck me if the Liberals haven’t been just as unfriendly to worker’s rights, and just generally spineless on so many issues, like I fully expected they would be.

  26. Who cares what the government says.

    It’s a strike.

    Don’t like it? Tough. Make the company negotiate in good faith.

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