If you’re scheduled to fly with Air Canada this weekend, well… you may not be flying Air Canada this weekend.
In this post:
Air Canada flight attendants issue strike warning
For quite some time, Air Canada management and the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), which represents the roughly 10,000 flight attendants at Air Canada and Air Canada Rouge, have been in negotiations over a new contract.
The two parties have reached a dead end. Recently, flight attendants voted on a strike authorization, and 99.7% of members voted in favor of industrial action. Unlike in the United States, airline labor groups in Canada actually have the power to go on strike relatively easily, and that’s exactly what we’re seeing at the moment.
CUPE has issued a 72-hour strike notice, meaning we could see mass flight cancelations as early as Saturday, August 16, 2025. In response to this, Air Canada has issued a lockout notice, to mitigate the strike’s customer impact, and allow the airline to shut down in an orderly manner. You can expect that over the coming days, the airline will have a phased wind down.
Note that Air Canada Express flights operated by Jazz and PAL Airlines will continue to operate as normal. However, those carriers only transport roughly 20% of Air Canada’s daily customers. Air Canada and Air Canada Rouge carry roughly 130,000 passengers per day, who could be impacted by this industrial action.
If you have any Air Canada flights booked in the coming days, be sure to keep an eye on Air Canada’s webpage about this situation, where details of flight cancelations should be posted. Of course it’s worth emphasizing that we do sometimes see last minute deals reached, so that’s not out of the question.
Why can’t Air Canada and the union come to an agreement?
Air Canada management claims it has been in eight months of good faith negotiations, including soliciting the help of federal conciliators, and an offer to enter binding arbitration. However, the company has been unable to come to an agreement with the union.
Air Canada emphasizes how on August 11, 2025, it tabled a revised comprehensive proposal, which would’ve seen flight attendants get a 38% pay increase over four years. The offer also addressed the issue of ground pay, improved pensions and benefits, increased crew rest, and more.
Here’s how Air Canada CEO Michael Rousseau describes this:
We regret the impact a disruption will have on our customers, our stakeholders and the communities we serve. However, the disappointing conduct of CUPE’s negotiators and the union’s stated intention to launch a strike puts us in a position where our only responsible course of action is to provide certainty by implementing an orderly suspension of Air Canada’s and Air Canada Rouge’s operations through a lockout. As we have seen elsewhere in our industry with other labour disruptions, unplanned or uncontrolled shutdowns, such as we are now at risk of through a strike, can create chaos for travellers that is far, far worse.
Our latest offer included a 38 per cent increase in total compensation over four years that would have made our flight attendants the best compensated in Canada, along with provisions for ground pay and other work-life balance, career and pension improvements. At the same time, we asked for no concessions from the union. Given this, while we remain available for discussions with CUPE, we have requested government-directed arbitration as we now view it as the only certain avenue to bring closure to bargaining and mitigate the impact on travellers, business and the Canadian economy.
As you’d expect, the union has a very different take. Here’s how union president Wesley Lesosky describes the motivation behind going on strike:
After nine months of the company delaying at the bargaining table on the fundamental issues – unpaid work and poverty wages – the union asked for and received an unprecedented 99.7% strike mandate from its membership. Flight attendants turned out by the hundreds at airports across the country for a powerful showing of solidarity for their August 11 Day of Action.
Air Canada has seen how determined and united flight attendants are to end unpaid work and win a real cost-of-living increase to wages.
Now, Air Canada has decided they no longer want to negotiate. They want to go to arbitration, rather than stay at the bargaining table and bargain a new contract.
Everyone knows the best deals are negotiated at the bargaining table, not handed down by an outside third-party. Then why does Air Canada want the union to agree to arbitration?
First, arbitrators rely on precedent and the status quo to make their determinations. But Air Canada flight attendants are trying to break the status quo by ending the historic abuse of unpaid work in this industry. Air Canada wants an arbitrator to do their dirty work for them to keep the status quo intact.
Second, an arbitrator’s determination would be final. Members would not get a chance to vote on it. Air Canada wants to go to arbitration because they want to take away our members’ democratic voice.
The union has declined the company’s proposal to preserve the exploitative status quo and take away our members’ voice.
The Air Canada Component of CUPE remains at the bargaining table, ready to negotiate.
We have always been available to negotiate. The union was available to continue discussions while it sought a strike mandate – the company never reached out.
Regarding Air Canada’s claim of a 38% pay increase, here’s how the union responds to that:
Meanwhile, on wages, Air Canada’s offer is below market value, below inflation, and below minimum wage.
- Air Canada has offered 8% in the first year as a one-time catch-up. Meanwhile, flight attendants have taken a 9% cut to their real wages due to inflation over the course of their last contract since 2015. This offer does not even keep up with inflation – it is, in effect, a pay cut. Air Canada’s offer is below inflation.
- Air Canada is using misleading “kitchen-sink” figures to make the public believe that flight attendants who rely on food banks and second and third jobs are the ones being greedy. In reality, the company has offered a 17.2% wage increase over four years. Even in year four of Air Canada’s offer, in 2028, Air Canada flight attendants would earn less than competitor airlines in Canada earn today. Air Canada’s offer is below market value.
- Even with the “best offer” that Air Canada can make, an entry-level Air Canada flight attendant working full-time will still earn less than federal minimum wage. Junior Air Canada flight attendants working full-time (75 credit hours per month) currently earn $1,952 per month pre-taxes. With Air Canada’s first-year catch-up increase of 8%, their earnings would increase to $2,108.16 per month. Meanwhile, a worker earning federal minimum wage at $17.75 per hour would earn $2,840.00 per month pre-taxes. Air Canada’s offer is below minimum wage.
Air Canada has posted billions in profits in recent years. They can afford to pay flight attendants fairly without raising costs for the public.
Bottom line
Air Canada flight attendants are preparing to go on strike as of Saturday, August 16, 2025. In response to this, Air Canada plans to begin cutting its schedule, to mitigate the operational impact of this. Canada makes it much easier than the United States for labor groups to go on strike, so we’ll see how this all plays out.
The strike could be called off at the last minute, or it could drag on for weeks… we’ll see. Air Canada management emphasizes how it has offered flight attendants a 38% increase over the course of four years, but the union states that what has been offered doesn’t even keep up with inflation.
How do you see this Air Canada strike situation playing out?
“ Even in year four of Air Canada’s offer, in 2028, Air Canada flight attendants would earn less than competitor airlines in Canada earn today.”
Then they should go to work for the other airlines. It’s really that simple.
Not terribly balanced when a story tells how much employees make but not how much the company makes. AC shares are selling 27% higher than this time last year, although the April tariff threats caused a temporary steep decline. The last quarterly report still showed nearly a billion CA$ EBITDA.
I don't expect either management or labor to be in a good situation this time next year, regardless of how they agree. Canada and...
Not terribly balanced when a story tells how much employees make but not how much the company makes. AC shares are selling 27% higher than this time last year, although the April tariff threats caused a temporary steep decline. The last quarterly report still showed nearly a billion CA$ EBITDA.
I don't expect either management or labor to be in a good situation this time next year, regardless of how they agree. Canada and the US are now enemies. Flights between the two countries are being canceled. They can't really repurpose those planes and crews to carry people from Halifax to Saskatoon.
Inconveniencing thousands of customers is not the way to win public support. Think harder.
Well, I no big fan of minimum wages and even less of unions. But if there is a minimum wage in Canadian legislation, AC needs to comply.
They have offered about $28/hour, far above the minimum wage of $17.75
It probably doesn't matter in this case because they are nowhere close to minimum wage, but in legislation, minimum wage does not apply to a unionized workforce. The union is fully free to negotiate any wage they wish
Haha commie Canadians at it again, enjoy your broke economy and woke strikes.
Serves them right for disrespecting us.
People like you really have no clue and no culture. Go back to being a hillbilly
Presume by ‘us’ you actually mean Americans. Good thing that Boeing strike last year did not have any impact. Unless you were waiting for a new Boeing jet.
It is pretty hard to take the union seriously when they come up with that minimum wage gem. They think that comparing a FA working 75 hours per month should make at least as much as others in the federal workforce working 160 hours a month. It is pretty ridiculous that a FA working 75 hours per month is considered full time and eligible for benefits. In the real world, that just isn't a thing.
It is pretty hard to take the union seriously when they come up with that minimum wage gem. They think that comparing a FA working 75 hours per month should make at least as much as others in the federal workforce working 160 hours a month. It is pretty ridiculous that a FA working 75 hours per month is considered full time and eligible for benefits. In the real world, that just isn't a thing.
When they make a ridiculous claim like this, it undermines their other arguments, especially when the argument is as nebulous as their claim about market wages. They say that they will be paid less than at "competitor airlines in Canada". Which airlines? not mentioned. If this was true, wouldn't they have said which airlines? There are really only two other Canadian airlines, Westjet and Porter and, as far as I can tell AC flight attendants would be paid better than both of them.
They don’t just work 75 hours a month. That’s just flight hours, all the time they spend at work prior to departure, boarding, deplaning and in between flights is unpaid. They can work 12 hours in a day and get payed 5 hours just as an example…..
MY understanding is that they have been offered boarding and deplaning pay. Also my understanding is that the union wants them to be paid for all time spent in the airports. That is unrealistic and not comparable to any other job that I can think of. If they really are spending 160 hours working each and every month, then they should document that, rather than just making a claim without any evidence. Do they work...
MY understanding is that they have been offered boarding and deplaning pay. Also my understanding is that the union wants them to be paid for all time spent in the airports. That is unrealistic and not comparable to any other job that I can think of. If they really are spending 160 hours working each and every month, then they should document that, rather than just making a claim without any evidence. Do they work more than 75 hours? Yes, they do. Do they work 160 hours? I rather doubt it at least by any reasonable definition of "work"
I am normally on the side of the workers in most cases but when a union makes over the top claims such as these, it is hard to take their concerns seriously and it detracts from what may otherwise be legitimate concerns.
What proof do you have that the union is inventing numbers? Every single trip is logged, they have the exact times for every duty period. This is common knowledge.
If you don’t know, ask. Otherwise you’re just auditioning for the role of “confidently wrong.”
I have not said they are inventing numbers. I have said that they have not given any actual numbers, other than the 75 hours. If they have the actual numbers from preflight briefing to departure from the aircraft at the end of the flight, then they should present those numbers and the travelling public would better be able to judge whether they are being paid less than minimum wage as they are claiming. Claiming they...
I have not said they are inventing numbers. I have said that they have not given any actual numbers, other than the 75 hours. If they have the actual numbers from preflight briefing to departure from the aircraft at the end of the flight, then they should present those numbers and the travelling public would better be able to judge whether they are being paid less than minimum wage as they are claiming. Claiming they are paid below minimum wage by citing what 160 hours would be at minimum wage is, at best, disingenuous
You wrote;
‘they really are spending 160 hours working each and every month, then they should document that, rather than just making a claim without any evidence.‘
That’s exactly what you implied — that the numbers are made up. They’re not. Every single hour is logged and verifiable.
When you break down the hours flight attendants, especially junior ones, spend in uniform and on duty, the pay often doesn’t even add up to minimum...
You wrote;
‘they really are spending 160 hours working each and every month, then they should document that, rather than just making a claim without any evidence.‘
That’s exactly what you implied — that the numbers are made up. They’re not. Every single hour is logged and verifiable.
When you break down the hours flight attendants, especially junior ones, spend in uniform and on duty, the pay often doesn’t even add up to minimum wage.
Do you work a full day and take home pay for half? And that’s without counting the hours spent sitting on a plane with passengers during delays — for free. Fair? Sure, if you’re the kind of person who considers exploiting people a sound business plan.
If they're expected to be at the airport in uniform at a certain time to start the pre-flight briefing, then they should be paid for that time. Likewise they should be remunerated for the time they spend on the aircraft at the end of a flight. Paying people for the time they actually spend doing their job is hardly unfair, "commie", or "woke".
Agreed, they are being ridiculously greedy and if you calculate the hourly wage they want, it is unrealistically high considering they only work 75 hours per month.
Any work stoppage is unlikely to last “for weeks” as the Government tends to legislate a return to work fairly quickly in industries that are critical. There are not as many alternatives to Air Canada for travel internally and that alternate capacity is constrained. I seen to recall a post where the reason unions were ok with unpaid ground time historically was discussed.
38% raises don't keep up with inflation? WTF. Underpaid sure, but 9% per a year for 4 years is respectable.
Greedy management just cancelled all staff travel perks ahead of the strike so their workers will have to position home out of pocket if stuck at an outstation.
AC should have gone bankrupt many times if not for government bailouts and continous subsidies.
Now again they are looking for a federal injunction to the strike.
Crooked management running a disgrace of an airline.
Hope the FAs get all they are asking for.
Wrong. If they are away from home, they are still allowed to take advantage of their travel perqs to get home. They are not allowed to go out from home during this period so that AC can take care of as many displaced passengers as possible and to ensure that employees can be at their home base when they return to work, rather than being stranded somewhere with no way to get back to work because all flights are full of displaced passengers.
Oh man. I was supposed to fly AA out of YUL to the US today. My PHL flight got delayed significantly to the point I'd miss my connection. I was rebooked automatically for the following morning. I decided to stay an extra couple days in Montreal, and just booked a ticket home on Air Canada last night for travel this Saturday. My luck is amazing lol.
Unpaid work? Outrageous that they've put up with it for so long. 100% support the flight attendants.
Did I read the AC website correctly? That if you can no longer travel because the strike has cancelled your flight, for many fare classes, you don't get refunded but rather can only get an AC credit for your fare that must be used within one year?
Go back and read the FAQ. If AC cancels your flight, they will rebook you on a different airline traveling within 48 hours. If that’s not possible, you can get a full refund. The AC credit-only option applies only if you cancel a non-refundable ticket on an AC flight that hasn’t been officially canceled. As of right now, only flights through August 18 are canceled, so keep checking their website.
first, Canadian labor laws are different than the US but you have to commend a system that could reach a resolution far faster than the multiple years that it takes labor contracts to be amended in the US.
second, if lockout means the same as it does in the US, AC might have decided it is ready to rebuild the entire FA workforce under new rules the company can impose which is a very...
first, Canadian labor laws are different than the US but you have to commend a system that could reach a resolution far faster than the multiple years that it takes labor contracts to be amended in the US.
second, if lockout means the same as it does in the US, AC might have decided it is ready to rebuild the entire FA workforce under new rules the company can impose which is a very big deal.
third, just as in the US, labor contracts are complex and arbitration is the only real way for an outsider to be able to weigh all of the conflicting arguments.
Let's hope they can get it figured out but I would guess unless someone blinks, we will see some massive changes at AC - and I doubt if it will be the company doing the blinking.
If a large portion of FAs are really working at below minimum wage, then the striking FAs should be able to find more profitable work for themselves.
Highlight your last statement. If you are over worked and under paid get a different job just like the rest of us. Take unions out of the equation and force AC to react to market demands - if their employees leave in droves they are forced to react or go out of business.
Better for all (except the entitled lazy employees of course)
yes... but let's keep in mind that even w/ the information that Ben provided, AC's FAs are trying to redefine the industry basis for non-flying compensation.
Is it true that FAs and pilots spend far more time between arrival at the airport than the hours they get paid for? Absolutely.
is is risky to think they will redefine industry standards and come up with a pay raise in the process? very much so.
and,...
yes... but let's keep in mind that even w/ the information that Ben provided, AC's FAs are trying to redefine the industry basis for non-flying compensation.
Is it true that FAs and pilots spend far more time between arrival at the airport than the hours they get paid for? Absolutely.
is is risky to think they will redefine industry standards and come up with a pay raise in the process? very much so.
and, as much as some people don't want to hear it, DL made the biggest move in changing the way FA compensation is done in N. America by adding boarding pay to its FAs. Canada is more closely aligned to the US than any other region or country of the world. It is a given that AC is fighting not to allow the change in compensation for non-flying time to make inroads in Canada.
Love Americans chiming in about a situation they have absolutely no f'ing clue about.
Pod for the flight attendants, and greedy misleading corporations. They haven't gotten a raise in many years, and 8% increase on year one, after no getting a raise in so long, after inflation has gone up is disappointing. Shame on everyone commenting on " they only work 75 hours bs, you are clueless on how crew schedule works. No report to Irport pay, no ground pay, no delay pay with angry people on-board for hours,...
Pod for the flight attendants, and greedy misleading corporations. They haven't gotten a raise in many years, and 8% increase on year one, after no getting a raise in so long, after inflation has gone up is disappointing. Shame on everyone commenting on " they only work 75 hours bs, you are clueless on how crew schedule works. No report to Irport pay, no ground pay, no delay pay with angry people on-board for hours, no deplaning pay, all those events build many dozens of hour per month going unpaid and are not added to the glorious 75 hpurs. Just zip it.
Apparently lockout does mean something different in Canada because it is most definitely not a precursor to completely rebuilding the FA workforce from the ground up. It is just a tool to allow them to control the wind down of operations to best serve passengers, rather than the union picking and choosing which flights to strike to cause the most operational chaos (and expense) possible. it also ensures that the union members fully share in...
Apparently lockout does mean something different in Canada because it is most definitely not a precursor to completely rebuilding the FA workforce from the ground up. It is just a tool to allow them to control the wind down of operations to best serve passengers, rather than the union picking and choosing which flights to strike to cause the most operational chaos (and expense) possible. it also ensures that the union members fully share in the pain, rather than being able to work when they need the money and strike when they don't.
100% support for the flight attendants.
There’s no amount of ff mikes, upgrades, lounge access, etc that could make me support exploitative labor practices.