No deal reached: Air Canada faces complete shutdown amid strike
The strike began shortly after a midnight deadline passed, and no contract agreement existed between the airline and the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), which represents the attendants.
Union spokesman Hugh Pouliot confirmed the strike's start at around 1 a.m. EDT on August 16, while the airline simultaneously announced it would lock attendants out of airports. The shutdown is expected to affect about 130,000 travelers daily, including some 25,000 Canadians abroad, as the airline typically operates nearly 700 flights a day.
The walkout comes after months of bitter negotiations. A day earlier, CUPE rejected Air Canada's push for government-directed arbitration. This process would have stripped the union of its right to strike and handed contract decisions to a third-party mediator. "We're here to bargain a deal, not to go on strike," Pouliot said, adding that the union had not received a counteroffer from Air Canada since Tuesday.
Federal Jobs Minister Patty Hajdu had met with both sides on August 15 and urged them to end the standoff. "It is unacceptable that so little progress has been made. Canadians are counting on both parties to put forward their best efforts," she said in a statement.
The impact was immediate for passengers. Alex Laroche, 21, from Montreal, said he and his girlfriend had been saving since Christmas for an $8,000 European trip. Now, their night flight to Nice, France, hangs in limbo.
At the core of the dispute are wages and the issue of unpaid work that attendants perform when planes are not in the air. The airline says its latest proposal offered a 38 percent boost in total compensation—including wages, pensions, and benefits—over four years, which it claimed would make Air Canada attendants the best paid in the country. However, the union argues that the eight percent increase in the first year falls far short of covering inflation and cost-of-living increases.
Air Canada warned that resuming operations could take up to a week even after a deal is struck. In the meantime, affected passengers can apply for refunds through the airline's website or app. The carrier also pledged to arrange alternative travel through Canadian and foreign airlines where possible, though it cautioned that many flights are already at capacity during the summer peak.
With negotiations stalled and both sides far apart, the strike leaves Canada's largest airline facing one of the most disruptive labor disputes in its history—and travelers around the world bracing for days of chaos.
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