Air Canada cancels flights after flight attendants defy back-to-work order

Air Canada has cancelled about 240 flights after its flight attendants refused to return to work despite an order from the federal labour board.

The airline said Sunday it had suspended plans to resume limited operations following a strike by the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE). Air Canada said CUPE had “illegally directed” members to defy the Canadian Industrial Relations Board’s directive to return to work.

“All operations of Air Canada and Air Canada Rouge were suspended August 16 due to a strike,” the company said in a statement. “In accordance with the Government of Canada’s direction, the CIRB ordered a resumption of our activities and directed our flight attendants to return to work.”

Air Canada said it will attempt to resume flights Monday evening. It typically operates 700 flights daily but noted Air Canada Express services run by Jazz and PAL Airlines remain unaffected. Customers with cancelled flights are being offered refunds, credits, or rebooking on other carriers where space allows.

The job action by more than 10,000 CUPE flight attendants began early Saturday morning after eight months of bargaining failed to produce a deal. Within hours, Labour Minister Patty Hajdu invoked section 107 of the Canada Labour Code, sending the dispute to binding arbitration and directing employees back to work.

“After eight months of negotiations by the parties, and after meeting with both parties last night and urging them to work hard to reach a deal, it is disappointing to have to conclude today that Air Canada and CUPE flight attendants are at an impasse,” Hajdu said in a statement Saturday.

She said the walkout was already having “an enormous impact” on travellers, supply chains and the economy, adding that “this is not the time to add additional challenges and disruptions to their lives and our economy.”

CUPE has condemned the government’s decision, accusing Prime Minister Mark Carney’s Liberals of siding with the airline.

“The Liberal government under Mark Carney has done incalculable damage to the Charter and workers’ rights by siding with Air Canada to crush the rights of flight attendants,” the union said in a statement.

CUPE national president Mark Hancock said members would keep fighting the airline and government “on the picket lines, on the streets, at the bargaining table, in the courts, and in Parliament, until the injustice of unpaid work is done for good.”

National secretary-treasurer Candace Rennick called the intervention “absolutely shameful and a blatant betrayal,” arguing it disproportionately harms a predominantly female workforce.

The dispute centres in part on CUPE’s demand to end unpaid work and raise starting wages, which it says leave many flight attendants in poverty despite Air Canada’s strong financial results.

The airline and the federal government maintain arbitration is necessary to ensure flights resume and critical goods keep moving.

As of Sunday at 3:30 p.m., CUPE and the minister had not issued any new statements.

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