Air Canada and the union representing 10,000 striking flight attendants resumed preliminary discussions on Monday night, marking their first talks in nearly a week, according to a statement from the union, Reuters reported.
In an unusual show of defiance, the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) continued its strike despite the Canada Industrial Relations Board ruling the action illegal, according to a report by Reuters.
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The walkout began on Saturday after contract negotiations between Air Canada and the union broke down, causing widespread disruption to travel plans for hundreds of thousands of passengers.
“The union is currently in meetings with Air Canada, the country’s largest carrier, with the assistance of mediator William Kaplan, in Toronto, CUPE said in a statement on Facebook. The strike is still on and talks have just commenced,” it said.
Canadian Jobs Minister Patty Hajdu has been pushing both parties to return to the negotiating table and reach a collective agreement for workers as soon as possible.
Air Canada CEO Mike Rousseau on Monday defended the airline’s offer of a 38% boost in compensation to striking flight attendants but said there was a big gap with the union’s demand and did not offer a path to return to negotiations, Reuters reported.
Hours later, Minister Hajdu raised pressure on Air Canada, saying she was launching a probe into airline pay and that a negotiated agreement between workers and the company would produce “the best deal.”
Hajdu’s and Rousseau’s comments followed the union’s refusal of a federal labor board’s order to return to work. That has created a three-way standoff between the company, workers and the government and raised the stakes in a dispute that has disrupted flights for hundreds of thousands of travelers during tourist season.
Unpaid work
Flight attendants want higher wages and to be paid for time spent boarding passengers and performing other duties on the ground.
They currently are not paid specifically for such work and Hajdu in her comments on X, voiced surprise at what she called allegations of unpaid work at the airline, which for months has been in on-and-off contract talks that prominently included the ground pay demands.
Also Read: Government forces Air Canada and flight attendants back to work and into arbitration
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney pleaded for a resolution, saying “hundreds of thousands of Canadians and visitors to our country are being disrupted by this action.”
A surge in domestic tourism has helped cushion the economic impact of tariffs imposed by Canada’s largest trading partner, the United States.
The airline, which is already facing reduced profits due to a decline in U.S.-bound bookings, typically transports around 130,000 passengers daily and is a member of the global Star Alliance network.
(With inputs from Reuters)