The largest airline in Canada canceled hundreds of flights due to a strike, but the government of Canada ordered Air Canada flight attendants back to work on Saturday and sent the parties to binding arbitration.
The action "will help ensure that hundreds of thousands of Canadians and visitors to our country are not impacted because of canceled flights," stated Jobs Minister Patty Hajdu.
When the flag carrier would start flying again was unknown. A representative for Air Canada stated that it was "premature to comment." The airline continued to advise travelers "to avoid going to the airport unless they have a confirmed booking and their flight is shown as operating" in the interim.
According to their union, the airline and 10,000 flight attendants' contract talks broke down this month over pay equity and remuneration for time spent working outside of flight hours.
Under a clause in Canadian law that permits the employment minister to enforce third-party arbitration, Air Canada requested that the federal government step in.
In response to the request, the flight attendants declared a strike that would start at 1 a.m. on Saturday. In response, the airline threatened to bar them from airports.
Hajdu called for the parties to resume talks on Friday, saying, "It is unacceptable that such little progress has been made."
More than 180 airports in the US, Canada, and other countries are served by the airline. It claims to be the biggest international airline in the United States, with up to 430 daily flights between the two nations and flights to more than 50 U.S. airports. According to data from the Canadian government, almost 714,000 Americans traveled to Canada by air last month.
According to Hugh Pouliot, a representative for the Canadian Union of Public Employees, flight attendants want their pay to be comparable to that of their smaller domestic rivals. According to Pouliot, a rookie flight attendant at Air Canada makes roughly three-quarters of what an attendant with comparable experience at Air Transat makes.
