Air Canada flight attendants defy return-to-work order, forcing airline to delay plans to resume flights

Finance·Airline industryAir Canada flight attendants defy return-to-work order, forcing airline to delay plans to resume flightsBy Rob GilliesBy The Associated PressBy Rob GilliesBy The Associated Press Air Canada flight attendants and supporters picket outside Toronto Pearson International Airport on Saturday.Mert Alper Dervis—Anadolu via Getty ImagesAir Canada said it susp plans to restart operations on Sunday after the union representing 10,000 flight attendants said it will defy a return to work order

The Canada Industrial Relations Board ordered airline staff back to work by 2 p.m

Sunday after the government intervened and Air Canada said it planned to resume flights Sunday evening

Canada’s largest airline now says it will resume flights Monday evening

Air Canada said in a statement that the union “illegally directed its flight attendant members to defy a direction from the Canadian Industrial Relations Board.” “Our members are not going back to work,” Canadian Union of Public Employees national president Mark Hancock said outside Toronto’s Pearson International Airport. “We are saying no.” Hancock ripped up a copy of the back-to-work order outside the airport’s departures terminal where union members were picketing Sunday morning

He said they won’t return Tuesday either

Flight attendants chanted “Don’t blame me, blame AC” outside Pearson

The federal government didn’t immediately vide on the union refusing to return to work

Hancock said the “whole cess has been unfair” and said the union will challenge what it called an unconstitutional order

Hajdu referred the work stoppage to the Canada Industrial Relations Board

The airline said the CIRB has ext the term of the existing collective agreement until a new one is determined by the arbitrator

Tourist Mel Durston from southern England was trying to make the most of sightseeing in Canada

But she said she doesn’t have a way to continue her journey. “We wanted to go see the Rockies, but we might not get there because of this,” Durston said. “We might have to head straight back.” James Hart and Zahara Virani were visiting Toronto from Calgary, Alberta for what they thought would be a fun weekend

But they up paying $2,600 Canadian ($1,880) to fly with another airline on a later day after their Air Canada flight got canceled. “It’s a little frustrating and stressful, but at the same time, I don’t blame the flight attendants at all,” Virani said. “What they’re asking for is not unreasonable whatsoever.” Flight attendants walked off the job around 1 a.m

Around the same time, Air Canada said it would begin locking flight attendants out of airports

The bitter contract fight escalated Friday as the union turned down Air Canada’s prior request to enter into government-directed arbitration, which allows a third-party mediator to decide the terms of a new contract

Last year, the government forced the country’s two major railroads into arbitration with their labor union during a work stoppage

The union for the rail workers is suing, arguing the government is removing a union’s leverage in negotiations

Hajdu maintained that her Liberal government is not anti-union, saying it is the two sides are at an impasse

Passengers whose flights are impacted will be eligible to request a full refund on the airline’s website or mobile app, according to Air Canada

The airline said it would also offer alternative travel options through other Canadian and foreign airlines when possible

Still, it warned that it could not guarantee immediate rebooking because flights on other airlines are already full “due to the summer travel peak.” Air Canada and CUPE have been in contract talks for eight months, but they have yet to reach a tentative deal

Both sides have said they remain far apart on the issue of pay and the unpaid work flight attendants do when planes aren’t in the air

The airline’s offer included a 38% increase in total compensation, including benefits and pensions, over four years, that it said “would have made our flight attendants the best compensated in Canada.” But the union pushed back, saying the posed 8% raise in the first year didn’t go far enough because of inflation

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