Toronto, 20 August (H.S.): Air Canada Strike Ends: Flights to Resume After Landmark Deal With UnionAir Canada will restart operations Tuesday evening after securing a tentative agreement with more than 10,000 striking flight attendants, ending a four-day walkout that stranded over half a million passengers and grounded hundreds of flights nationwide.
The breakthrough came after nine hours of mediated talks between Air Canada and the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE). The union, which had defied both a return-to-work order and a government push for binding arbitration, hailed the outcome as a historic fight that delivers transformational change for workers and the airline industry.
“Unpaid work is over,” CUPE declared, referring to boarding and airport waiting times often excluded from compensation packages. While specific terms remain undisclosed until membership ratification, Air Canada had previously tabled an offer promising a 38% increase in overall compensation across four years, including a 25% raise in the first year—an offer the union dismissed as insufficient and below industry standards.
Despite Tuesday’s return to service, the airline cautioned that flight schedules will take several days to normalize, as crews and aircraft are scattered across networks.
The strike, declared unlawful by the Canadian Industrial Relations Board, spotlighted longstanding grievances in the aviation sector and prompted Ottawa to announce a probe into alleged unpaid labor practices.
For now, both sides have avoided a protracted showdown, but the outcome is set to reshape not only Air Canada’s workforce relations but potentially broader labor standards in global aviation.-
Hindusthan Samachar / Jun Sarkar
