By Martha Grevatt
August 25, 2025

Fed up with low pay and unpaid work, around 10,000 flight attendants at Air Canada went on strike on Aug. 16 just after midnight, shutting down the company.

Later that same day the Canadian government, via Jobs Minister Patty Hajdu, ordered the workers to return to work, invoking Section 107 of the Canada Labour Code. However, the flight attendants defied the back to work order and had the backing of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), which represents them.

The Canadian Labour Council came out in support of the flight attendants, expressing frustration with the number of times the government has recently used Section 107 to force strikers back to work.

A second back-to-work order was issued on Aug. 18 by the Canada Industrial Relations Board, which workers again defied, but the next day CUPE announced a tentative agreement had been reached, ending the strike. Voting will take place Aug. 27 through Sept. 6.

A key issue in negotiations was the amount of time flight attendants work without pay. They are only paid for the time they are in the air but perform hours of unpaid labor boarding and de-boarding passengers. The amount of unpaid time, estimated at around 40 hours per month, increases when flights are delayed.

Wesley Lesosky, president of the Air Canada component of CUPE, stated, “The union fought hard to get the company to agree to move the wage piece forward in isolation from the other items, and we feel we were successful, because our members held strong on picket lines.” (Reuters.com, Aug. 22)

However, the contract only partially addresses unpaid work, granting workers some “ground pay” but not guaranteeing pay for the entire time a flight attendant spends working on the ground. Ground pay will be limited to 60 or 70 minutes, depending on the size of the plane, at 50% to 70% of a flight attendant’s hourly wage. Some workers have indicated they will vote “no” on the agreement.

The CUPE members were under a 10-year contract that expired Aug. 15, with raises of only 2% per year — meaning they had fallen drastically behind inflation over the life of the contract. The four-year contract gives workers an initial increase of 8% to 12% but only 8.25% over the next three years. This could be another reason strikers vote to reject the contract.

‘UnfAir Canada’

Strikers held militant picket lines during the strike, carrying signs with slogans such as “UnfAir Canada” and “Pay me my money!”

Air Canada is not yet back to full operations, with some flights still cancelled. The company has offered to accommodate passengers with refunds or rebooking with another airline. This is not required under Canadian law if the cancellation is due to a work stoppage. Thus Air Canada rewarded customers who opted to fly during the strike.

Although the strike has ended for now, it has ramifications for flight attendants in the U.S., most of whom also perform hours of unpaid labor in the form of ground time. They are at a legal disadvantage compared to their Canadian counterparts, because the Railway Labor Act can be used to prevent them from striking. As Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, AFL-CIO President Sara Nelson explained, “The right to strike is fundamental to collective bargaining, but it has been chipped away.” (apnews.com, Aug. 21)

AFA members at Southwest Airlines recently held pickets protesting unpaid work.