{"id":153853,"date":"2025-08-17T19:26:10","date_gmt":"2025-08-17T19:26:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/153853\/"},"modified":"2025-08-17T19:26:10","modified_gmt":"2025-08-17T19:26:10","slug":"air-canada-suspends-restart-plans-after-union-defies-return-to-work-order","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/153853\/","title":{"rendered":"Air Canada suspends restart plans after union defies return to work order"},"content":{"rendered":"

TORONTO (AP) \u2014 Air Canada<\/a> said it suspended 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.<\/p>\n

The Canada Industrial Relations Board ordered airline staff back to work by 2 p.m. Sunday<\/a> after the government intervened and Air Canada said it planned to resume flights Sunday evening.<\/p>\n

Canada\u2019s largest airline now says it will resume flights Monday evening. Air Canada said in a statement that the union \u201cillegally directed its flight attendant members to defy a direction from the Canadian Industrial Relations Board.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOur members are not going back to work,\u201d Canadian Union of Public Employees national president Mark Hancock said outside Toronto\u2019s Pearson International Airport. \u201cWe are saying no.\u201d<\/p>\n

The federal government didn\u2019t immediately provide comment on the union refusing to return to work. <\/p>\n

Hancock said the \u201cwhole process has been unfair\u201d and said the union will challenge what it called an unconstitutional order.<\/p>\n

\u201cAir 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,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The country\u2019s 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. <\/p>\n

Less than 12 hours after workers walked off the job, Federal Jobs Minister Patty Hajdu ordered the 10,000 flight attendants<\/a> back to work, saying now is not the time to take risks with the economy and noting the unprecedented tariffs<\/a> the U.S. has imposed on Canada. Hajdu referred the work stoppage to the Canada Industrial Relations Board.<\/p>\n

The airline said the CIRB has extended the term of the existing collective agreement until a new one is determined by the arbitrator.<\/p>\n

The shutdown of Canada\u2019s largest airline early Saturday was impacting about 130,000 people a day<\/a>. Air Canada operates around 700 flights per day.<\/p>\n

Flight attendants walked off the job around 1 a.m. EDT on Saturday. Around the same time, Air Canada said it would begin locking flight attendants out of airports.<\/p>\n

The bitter contract fight escalated Friday as the union turned down Air Canada\u2019s prior request to enter into government-directed arbitration, which allows a third-party mediator to decide the terms of a new contract.<\/p>\n

Last year, the government forced the country\u2019s two major railroads into arbitration<\/a> with their labor union during a work stoppage. The union for the rail workers is suing, arguing the government is removing a union\u2019s leverage in negotiations.<\/p>\n

The Business Council of Canada had urged the government to impose binding arbitration in this case, too. And the Canadian Chamber of Commerce welcomed the intervention.<\/p>\n

Hajdu maintained that her Liberal government is not anti-union, saying it is clear the two sides are at an impasse.<\/p>\n

Passengers whose flights are impacted will be eligible to request a full refund on the airline\u2019s website or mobile app, according to Air Canada.<\/p>\n

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 \u201cdue to the summer travel peak.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u2019t in the air.<\/p>\n

The airline\u2019s latest offer included a 38% increase in total compensation, including benefits and pensions, over four years, that it said \u201cwould have made our flight attendants the best compensated in Canada.\u201d<\/p>\n

But the union pushed back, saying the proposed 8% raise in the first year didn\u2019t go far enough because of inflation. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TORONTO (AP) \u2014 Air Canada said it suspended plans to restart operations on Sunday after the union representing…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":153854,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[64,2147,57,24963,89973,50,86385,103,107],"class_list":{"0":"post-153853","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-general-news","11":"tag-labor-unions","12":"tag-mark-hancock","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-patty-hajdu","15":"tag-world","16":"tag-world-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115045753585286663","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153853","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=153853"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153853\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/153854"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=153853"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=153853"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=153853"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}