WestJet, Canada’s second largest airline, is largely grounded as of today, as flight attendants have gone on strike over stalled contract negotiations. Unlike in the United States, it’s pretty easy for airline unions in Canada to actually call a strike. The question is, how long will it last, and will the government intervene?
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WestJet’s operations largely grounded over industrial action
WestJet flight attendants have gone on strike as of 2:01AM ET on Sunday, August 2, 2026, in the middle of one of Canada’s busiest travel weekends of the year. The union issued a 72-hour strike warning earlier this week, after flight attendants voted 99% in favor of a strike mandate.
In recent days, WestJet has started to cancel flights, in preparation for grounding its fleet. Virtually all mainline flights are canceled, while most flights by regional carrier WestJet Encore continue to operate.
Under Canadian law, the airline is required to rebook passengers on the next available flight, even if it’s on another airline. However, that’s easier said than done, especially given that most flights are already full on such a busy travel weekend.
WestJet states that it “remains at the table and committed to achieving a negotiated tentative agreement that recognizes the important contributions and professionalism of WestJet’s Cabin Crew.”
There’s no end in sight for this strike. It’s worth remembering the rough flight attendant strike that Air Canada had last August, which ultimately ended with the Canadian government ordering flight attendants back to work, and forcing arbitration.
That was done on the basis of Canada’s Minister of Jobs and Families invoking her authorities under section 107 of the Canada Labour Code, “because it is critical to maintaining and securing industrial peace, protecting Canadians and promoting conditions to resolve the dispute.”
WestJet flight attendants are primarily on strike over ground pay
Why are WestJet flight attendants on strike? Well, the company and the union have been engaged in contract negotiations since September 2025, so we’re coming up on a year of negotiations. According to WestJet, the company’s “most recent proposal was designed to be a transformative, industry-leading agreement for WestJet’s Cabin Crew, and directly addressed the key issues the union identified as its priorities.”
The union’s demands primarily revolve around ground pay. Historically, flight attendants have been paid whenever the aircraft door is closed, but not for things like boarding, etc. That is slowly starting to change in the industry, and it’s a key sticking point for the union. CUPE 8125, the union representing WestJet flight attendants, has even set up a website with the URL unpaidworkwontfly.ca. As the union explains:
Did you know flight attendants in Canada work for an average of 35 hours for free every month? Most airlines don’t pay flight attendants for vital safety-related duties like assisting passengers with additional needs, attending to medical and safety emergencies, boarding, deplaning, and ground delays.
The airline points out that flight attendants are paid by block hours based on when the aircraft door opens and closes, and that is “the standard pay model for cabin crews across North America” (which isn’t entirely true anymore).
In fairness, the model of flight attendant pay has long been that they get a higher hourly rate than they’d otherwise get if they were purely paid for any time where they were performing job duties. That doesn’t make it logical, necessarily, but the idea is that even at airlines that have introduced boarding pay, it’s at a reduced rate, in reflection of that.
Bottom line
WestJet flight attendants have gone on strike as of Sunday, meaning that nearly all mainline flights have been canceled. In Canada it’s pretty easy for airline employees to go on strike, and flight attendants voted overwhelmingly in favor of this. Interestingly, Air Canada flight attendants also went on strike around the same time last year, but the government stepped in to stop that.
WestJet flight attendants are wanting a new contract, and the major point of disagreement involves ground pay, for things like boarding. If you’re scheduled to fly WestJet in the coming days, don’t expect that your flight will operate.
How do you see this WestJet flight attendant strike playing out?
Ben, some good news, CUPE and WestJet reached a tentative agreement to end the strike, establishing a Duty Pay Premium for non-block duty time, including boarding. Paying crews for their actual time on duty isn't radical; it's accountability, and the union just proved it.
(So much for some folks' flawed arguments that ground pay is 'just a zero-sum accounting trick' or that airlines should force crews onto flat salaries.) When the fleet actually stopped moving, management miraculously found a way to compensate workers for ALL duty hours real fast. Huh.
Love (seriously not) the union BS. They don't work "for free" - their pay is calculated based on hours after the door is closed. The annual salary is what is required for the position and it doesn't matter if it is, for example, $100,000 with $100/hour for 1000 hours or $50/hour for 2000 hours. Anything else is simply moving hours and rates around. Trust me this will end with the union claiming a "win" with...
Love (seriously not) the union BS. They don't work "for free" - their pay is calculated based on hours after the door is closed. The annual salary is what is required for the position and it doesn't matter if it is, for example, $100,000 with $100/hour for 1000 hours or $50/hour for 2000 hours. Anything else is simply moving hours and rates around. Trust me this will end with the union claiming a "win" with ground pay but the overall income earned by FAs will not go up more than 5-7%. Man I wish Canada had protections for travel companies like the US to make strikes basically a non-issue. Another reason to never fly a Canadian airline.
Right on schedule, carrying water for corporate management against labor and consumers. Calling unpaid boarding 'just accounting math' ignores reality. Airlines get free labor during ground holds while burning crew duty limits. If it were just moving numbers around, WestJet wouldn't be taking a strike over it. Plus, blocking strikes under US law isn't a consumer right; and when US flights collapse, you get no statutory competitor rebooking rights. Under APPR, you do.
Right on schedule, carrying water for corporate management against labor and consumers. Calling unpaid boarding 'just accounting math' ignores reality. Airlines get free labor during ground holds while burning crew duty limits. If it were just moving numbers around, WestJet wouldn't be taking a strike over it. Plus, blocking strikes under US law isn't a consumer right; and when US flights collapse, you get no statutory competitor rebooking rights. Under APPR, you do.
While I agree with the comment in general, you need to factor in seniority. If WestJet has a seniority system like US unionized carriers, the "no pay until the door is shut" system benefits more senior FAs. This occurs because more senior FAs tend to get fewer, longer routes. Therefore, their paid hours tend to be a larger portion of their time from arriving at and departing from the airport. But, yah, do you want...
While I agree with the comment in general, you need to factor in seniority. If WestJet has a seniority system like US unionized carriers, the "no pay until the door is shut" system benefits more senior FAs. This occurs because more senior FAs tend to get fewer, longer routes. Therefore, their paid hours tend to be a larger portion of their time from arriving at and departing from the airport. But, yah, do you want a job where you get a paid lunch hour or an unpaid one if your weekly paycheck is the same?
This comes to mind, you like 'carrying water' too, huh? You so regularly traffic in false dilemmas on these sites; now you try to pit flight attendants against each other. Seniority lets them bid better routes, but it doesn't protect anyone from IRROPS. Senior and junior FAs still sit through 3-hour tarmac holds, de-icing delays, and boarding meltdowns for $0 pay. Board pay isn't a zero-sum game where junior crew gains come out of senior...
This comes to mind, you like 'carrying water' too, huh? You so regularly traffic in false dilemmas on these sites; now you try to pit flight attendants against each other. Seniority lets them bid better routes, but it doesn't protect anyone from IRROPS. Senior and junior FAs still sit through 3-hour tarmac holds, de-icing delays, and boarding meltdowns for $0 pay. Board pay isn't a zero-sum game where junior crew gains come out of senior pockets; it's incremental compensation for actual duty hours worked, regardless of years worked with the company.
It's always encouraging to observe North American entities get creative with geography and show just how inclusive they are by articulating their belief that Mexico somehow happens to be on a different continent.
I expect that those in Canada and the USA who champion equality and regularly get worked up about microagressions etc won't bother uttering a word about it all.
For the record, I believe that Aeroméxico and its local competitors all pay cabin crew fixed salaries with some allowances on top. (I was told this by an acquaintance who's an AM 787 pilot but I have no direct access to the info)
Throwawayname, nice combination of a Straw Man mixed with a Red Herring. Nobody claimed Mexico isn't in North America; I was comparing US DOT and Canadian APPR consumer protections during a WestJet labor dispute. As for that dispute, international models vary, but North American carriers have relied on block-hour pay (door-close to door-open) for decades. Delta changed boarding pay in 2022, and Canadian crews are fighting for that same. I think crews being paid for...
Throwawayname, nice combination of a Straw Man mixed with a Red Herring. Nobody claimed Mexico isn't in North America; I was comparing US DOT and Canadian APPR consumer protections during a WestJet labor dispute. As for that dispute, international models vary, but North American carriers have relied on block-hour pay (door-close to door-open) for decades. Delta changed boarding pay in 2022, and Canadian crews are fighting for that same. I think crews being paid for all duty hours worked is fair. Hoping WestJet resolves this in the FA's favor soon.
@1990 The fact that some carriers in the USA and Canada 'have relied on block-hour pay' is not in dispute. However, WestJet claim that to be 'the standard ACROSS N. America', something which can only be true if Mexican airlines rely on the same system.
Your comment can either mean that Mexican carriers also rely on block-hour pay, or that you share WestJet's apparent belief that the country isn't part of North America. Which of the two is it?
Throwawayname, you just doubled-down on your false dilemma. Dragging Mexican aviation pay into a Canadian labor dispute is an attempt at deflection. WestJet used standard corporate PR shorthand for the US/Canada market, and you're trying to weaponize and politicize a geographic technicality to derail a thread about flight attendant labor rights. The bottom line is that no mere word choice justifies making flight attendants work boarding for free.
You're still missing the point I made. The 'standard corporate PR shorthand' is drafted in a way which reveals prejudice and exclusion.
That's not quite the end of the world as all humans have preconceptions etc, although you could argue that an organisation employing communications professionals should be able to filter such preconceptions. I'm still fascinated by the cognitive dissonance displayed by those who describe themselves as super inclusive, 'woke', and/or concerned about systemic...
You're still missing the point I made. The 'standard corporate PR shorthand' is drafted in a way which reveals prejudice and exclusion.
That's not quite the end of the world as all humans have preconceptions etc, although you could argue that an organisation employing communications professionals should be able to filter such preconceptions. I'm still fascinated by the cognitive dissonance displayed by those who describe themselves as super inclusive, 'woke', and/or concerned about systemic exclusion whilst actively perpetuating that exclusion.
WestJet themselves advertise how good they are in that space because they have appointed a 'senior leader dedicated to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI)'*, money that's been really well spent on someone who can't even ensure that their colleagues get their geography right. Even more fascinating is the complete absence of any kind of backlash from those who constantly wag fingers at others about [real and/or perceived] injustices related to BLM, Palestine and other analogous causes.
https://www.westjet.com/en-ca/news/2025/westjet-marks-two-years-of-progress-in-accessibility
Ok, so, regardless of how many times you post it, going on a right-wing talking-point rant about DEI is basically an admission that this is all just a huge distraction from the actual issues in this labor dispute. It’s not about Mexico. It’s not DEI. It’s about actually paying the FAs while they’re working, including during boarding.
There's no 'right wing talking point rant'- if anything, the union talking point makes a lot more sense to me than the management response and I suspect that my view would be anathema to the American right.
From my perspective, the solution is absolutely obvious: they should copy the Mexican model and give FAs annual salaries instead of trying to work out weird formulae for how much each hour's worth.
Throwawayname, switching to a flat salary without hourly duty protections is actually a trap that favors management, not crews. A flat salary without hourly overtime or duty guarantees is an incentive for airlines to stretch crew shifts to their legal limits during delays at no extra cost. Hourly pay with boarding guarantees ensures that when the airline consumes a worker's time, they actually pay the workers. The solution isn't flattening compensation; it's paying for all...
Throwawayname, switching to a flat salary without hourly duty protections is actually a trap that favors management, not crews. A flat salary without hourly overtime or duty guarantees is an incentive for airlines to stretch crew shifts to their legal limits during delays at no extra cost. Hourly pay with boarding guarantees ensures that when the airline consumes a worker's time, they actually pay the workers. The solution isn't flattening compensation; it's paying for all duty time worked, including boarding.
You're missing the point, and the blog is again eating up my responses.
I'm not the one politicising stuff, WestJet choose pride themselves on employing a senior DEI leader and then express themselves in an exclusionary manner...and many people who constantly get entangled in culture wars and upset over [perceived or real] injustices seem to be very quiet about exclusion when there's no obvious opportunity for political leverage.
I'm not politicising anything, I'm just fascinated...
You're missing the point, and the blog is again eating up my responses.
I'm not the one politicising stuff, WestJet choose pride themselves on employing a senior DEI leader and then express themselves in an exclusionary manner...and many people who constantly get entangled in culture wars and upset over [perceived or real] injustices seem to be very quiet about exclusion when there's no obvious opportunity for political leverage.
I'm not politicising anything, I'm just fascinated by the cognitive dissonance.
The previous comment ended up appearing, hence the duplication.
This will be a good opportunity for WestJet to reduce it's FA expenses with a little selective thinning-out . First out ought to be the beardys and those of far-advanced age .
How so?
"First out ought to be the beardys and those of far-advanced age ."
What about girls with their stupid girl food? I'd have though you'd hate them more.
Wishing the flight attendants and their union representation all the best. Cancelled flights are never fun, but at least Canada’s APPR ensures passengers have rebooking and refund protections in place. As travelers, we should stand with the crew fighting for fair pay.
For anyone who cares: Unlike EU/UK261, APPR doesn't include cash compensation for strikes (a major shortcoming in Canada’s regulations). But unlike the US, where you're basically left with just a refund, WestJet is legally forced to rebook stranded passengers on rival airlines after 48 hours (a bit like pre-deregulation Rule 240.) Far from perfect, but better than nothing.
Have you ever tried to process a claim under the APPR? There is a backlog of more than a year under the CTA. Meanwhile, major airlines flout the APPR on any day ending in "y".
Yes, processed by Air Canada; it's true, the airlines try to dodge it, you need to be persistent and patient, but let's be clear, having a statutory right does provide passengers with leverage to get resolutions through claims portals, and credit card disputes, when needed. I would like to see reforms, increased protections, and better enforcement. However, to suggest APPR is 'toothless' or should be repealed, would only be a benefit to the airlines, not passengers.
It's pathetic legislation. It actually ended up ended up giving passengers less rights.
However, liberals wrote the legislation, reality trying to keep Air Canada happy and Quebec votes.
Parnel, no, Canada's APPR did not 'give passengers less rights.' Blame whatever political party you want, but having statutory 48-hour competitor rebooking rules in law gives passengers far more leverage than having zero protections at all. Far from perfect, but I (and most passengers) would take actionable consumer rights over mere 'hope' of corporate goodwill, any day.
Some Sunday funnies, courtesy of 1990 - “But unlike the US, where you're basically left with just a refund,”
No 1990 - our consumer protection in the US is far superior, as they’re unable to strike in the first place, and you get to fly.
"...as they’re unable to strike in the first place, and you get to fly."
In what country is this?
I’m afraid Sel, D. is technically correct. Airlines and Railway employees in the US can vote for a strike, but a strike cannot occur unless it meets federal standards for failing mediation, which has proven to be functionally impossible. In 2022 various US railroad unions voted for a strike but the contract was eventually forced into effect by Congress. The last actual work stoppage for a US railroad was 2 days in 1992. US Airlines...
I’m afraid Sel, D. is technically correct. Airlines and Railway employees in the US can vote for a strike, but a strike cannot occur unless it meets federal standards for failing mediation, which has proven to be functionally impossible. In 2022 various US railroad unions voted for a strike but the contract was eventually forced into effect by Congress. The last actual work stoppage for a US railroad was 2 days in 1992. US Airlines are governed by the same labor act, hence the significance. The last work stoppage for airlines was Spirit (RIP) in 2010.
Timtamtrak, don't take the bait. Sel, D. is likely purposely confusing labor suppression with consumer rights. Blocking strikes under the RLA is government labor intervention. When a US airline grounds flights for weather, IT, or staffing meltdowns, DOT rules do not include interline or competitor rebooking; you get a refund and a 'good luck.' Under Canada's APPR, WestJet is legally forced to rebook you on rival airlines after 48 hours. For anyone who actually needs...
Timtamtrak, don't take the bait. Sel, D. is likely purposely confusing labor suppression with consumer rights. Blocking strikes under the RLA is government labor intervention. When a US airline grounds flights for weather, IT, or staffing meltdowns, DOT rules do not include interline or competitor rebooking; you get a refund and a 'good luck.' Under Canada's APPR, WestJet is legally forced to rebook you on rival airlines after 48 hours. For anyone who actually needs to travel during a disruption, APPR offers a real statutory safety net that US law lacks.
Sel, D., you're confusing labor policy with consumer protection. Suppressing strikes via the Railway Labor Act isn't a consumer right. When a US flight cancels due to weather, IT, or internal staffing meltdowns, DOT rules do not ensure any competitor rebooking; just a refund. APPR forces WestJet to buy you a seat on a rival carrier like Air Canada after 48 hours. That's actual consumer protection.
It all started when in 2009 the corrupt conservatives bailed out AC interrupting the natural flow of the market.
Oh, 'Adam,' the irony of your chosen alias is rich. You should know that the *real* Adam Smith wrote that a fair market requires full compensation for all labor, warning against employers using leverage to suppress wages. Unpaid boarding is an artificial distortion benefiting the carrier. Corporate bailouts distort markets, but so does free labor. Paying crews for ground time and enforcing APPR rebooking rights is actual market equity. If you were true to your...
Oh, 'Adam,' the irony of your chosen alias is rich. You should know that the *real* Adam Smith wrote that a fair market requires full compensation for all labor, warning against employers using leverage to suppress wages. Unpaid boarding is an artificial distortion benefiting the carrier. Corporate bailouts distort markets, but so does free labor. Paying crews for ground time and enforcing APPR rebooking rights is actual market equity. If you were true to your namesake, you should be with the workers here...hmm.