Over the last five years, flight attendants at almost all major North American airlines have engaged in some sort of job action for better pay and conditions.
The union representing 28,000 United Airlines (UAL) flight attendants voted down a contract that would have given them a raise of up to 45% by 2030 at the end of July, while American Airlines (AAL) flight attendants codified a five-year pay agreement with the airline in September 2024.
This ended a multi-year dispute with American Airlines leadership that saw a number of daylong job walkouts and picketing at different airports across the country.
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Air Canada says it is “now looking at all remaining options”
The latest airline to see its flight attendants prepare to go on strike is Canadian flagship carrier Air Canada (ACDVF) — on Aug. 13, the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) representing 10,000 of the airline’s flight attendants put out a 72-hour strike notice after both sides claimed to have reached an impasse in labor negotiations.
Over 99.7% of the members voted against the offer of a 38% pay raise over four years due primarily to what the airline says was Air Canada “refus[ing] to address” core issues such as unpaid work.
On Aug. 11, flight attendants across Canada engaged in a “day of action” in which they engaged in picketing but did not begin a formal strike.
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“For the past nine months, we have put forward solid, data-driven proposals on wages and unpaid work, all rooted in fairness and industry standards,” Union President Wesley Lesosky said in a statement. “Air Canada’s response to our proposals makes one thing clear: they are not interested in resolving these critical issues.”
Air Canada’s Executive Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer Arielle Meloul-Wechsler meanwhile issued a statement saying that the airline and its workers “remain far apart on key issues” and that Air Canada is “now looking at all remaining options, including a request for government-directed arbitration, to prevent a disruption or at least remove this intolerable uncertainty for our customers.”
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Short of a last-minute deal, the strike is now set to begin at 1 a.m. EST on Aug. 16. Air Canada announced that it will begin suspending flights on Aug. 14 in a move that could affect the airline’s 130,000 daily customers around the world.
During a full strike, North America’s fifth-largest airline would be in a “complete cessation of service” and not run any flights at all.
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Air Canada CEO Michael Rousseau said the airline is “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.”
While more details on which flights will be canceled first are expected to emerge in the coming days, the airline said anyone with a disrupted flight will be contacted about it and offered a refund.
“We will begin implementing our contingency plan to gradually begin an orderly wind down of operations,” Air Canada said in a further statement.
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