Air Canada, the country’s largest airline, had stopped all operations after some 10,000 flight attendants began industrial action fueled by a wage dispute just after midnight on Saturday.
The airline, which has 130,000 daily passengers and flies directly to 180 cities worldwide, said that all flights would be cancelled until Sunday afternoon pending a decision by the country’s industrial relations board.
The strikers held signs criticizing the airline’s management of prioritizing shareholders’ profit over employees’ well-being, blaming “corporate greed” for the dispute with management.
The airline executives slammed the workers’ union CUPE for “wasted” days of negotiations.
The airline also said customers on cancelled flights were being offered a full refund.
It had earlier urged customers not to go to the airport if they have a ticket for Air Canada or its lower-cost subsidiary Air Canada Rouge.
The Canadian government made an abortive attempt to speedily resolve the wage dispute by intervening in the strike.
Canada’s Labor Policy Minister, Patty Hajdu, moved to invoke a legal provision that would halt the strike and force both sides into binding arbitration.
Hajdu told reporters, “This is not a decision that I have taken lightly. The potential for immediate negative impact on Canadians and our economy is simply too great.”
She said due to the strike, it could still take five to 10 days for Air Canada to resume regular services.
Mark Nasr, COO of Air Canada, has also said that once the terms of a tentative deal are reached with the flight crew, it could take up to a week to restart “all operations” of the airline.
Till now, the strikers’ union has turned down the airline’s insistence to enter into government-directed arbitration, which would eliminate its right to take industrial action and require a third-party mediator to outline the terms of wages and working conditions in a new labor contract.
Canada’s economy, though showing resilience, has begun feeling the effects of US President Donald Trump’s trade war, with his tariffs hitting crucial sectors like auto, aluminum, and steel.
In a statement issued before the strike began, the Business Council of Canada warned that an Air Canada work stoppage could add further pain.
“At a time when Canada is dealing with unprecedented pressures on our critical economic supply chains, the disruption of national air passenger travel and cargo transport services would cause immediate and extensive harm to all Canadians,” it said.
MNA