Air Canada strike ends with historic deal for 10,000 flight attendants
The tentative deal, which guarantees pay for on-the-ground work, ends the flight attendants’ strike that was disrupting 130,000 travellers daily
The union for Air Canada’s 10,000 flight attendants said early on Tuesday that it has reached a tentative agreement to end a strike.
Air Canada and the union resumed talks late on Monday for the first time since the strike began over the weekend. The strike is affecting about 130,000 travellers a day at the peak of the summer travel season.
The union said the agreement will guarantee members pay for work performed while planes are on the ground, such as boarding passengers, resolving one of the major issues that drove the strike.
“Unpaid work is over. We have reclaimed our voice and our power,” the union said in a statement. “When our rights were taken away, we stood strong, we fought back – and we secured a tentative agreement that our members can vote on.”
It followed the union’s declaration that the flight attendants wouldn’t return to work even though the strike was declared illegal.
Earlier, Air Canada said rolling cancellations would now extend through Tuesday afternoon after the union defied a second return-to-work order.