Thursday August 14, 2025 | TORONTO, ON [Posted at 8:56 am PT – Updated 10:07 am & 10:25 pm | Updated Aug 18, 2025]
News analysis by Mary P Brooke | Island Social Trends
IN A NUTSHELL: Working it out at the bargaining table is probably not enough; Canadian lifestyle demands new employment parameters.
Are consumers in Canada (and across the globe) willing to soon start paying much more for travel? Of course, all work must be compensated, but this dispute signals a large restructuring of the cost of air travel.
Update on Thursday evening:
“We are seeing close to 300 Flight Attendants, twice as much as usual, not reporting for work tonight. This will result in additional cancellations. We regret the inconvenience to customers,” said Air Canada in a post on X around 6 pm PT.
As first published Thursday morning:
Air Canada is preparing for an upcoming strike of their unionized workers.
Air Canada is this country’s largest air carrier, with 40,000 employees, 10,000 flight attendants. The airline flies to 200 destinations in 65 countries.
As outlined in a televised press conference by Air Canada at 10:30 am ET this morning in Toronto, the strike by Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) workers will impact 130,000 customers per day. Around 25,000 people per day will be stranded, said Canada Post.
Customer impact:
By end of today, there will be several dozen flight cancellations (mostly long-haul flights from Toronto and Vancouver), by end of day Friday there will be 500 cancellations, equating to about 100,000 passengers. By Saturday at 1 am ET there will be a complete grounding of all Air Canada flights, according to Air Canada Executive VP and CEO Mark Nasr.
Air Canada will help as many people as possible to reach their destinations before these disruptions. It will take a full week to fully revamp the regular schedules.
Nasr said that the services of Air Canada are a “complex system”. He pointed out that the travel industry is” in full summer vacation season”.
Travellers will be able to rebook a flight without any change fee, said Air Canada. They will work with “120 airlines including competitors”.
Customers will get emails and text messages regarding flight changes, said Nosr.
Employer still willing to bargain:
Air Canada spokespersons at the news conference today said that as the employer they are “willing to continue to bargain”.
Air Canada says their offer for ground pay “has been on the table for month” and that “they have stayed at the table and responded to every offer”.
Air Canada is “available to bargain at any time, if there is “substance” but that CUPE ‘wasted’ days of negotiations, forcing a lockout.
“We do know that the best deal is at the table,” said an Air Canada rep in today’s news conference, regarding how Jobs and Families Minister Patty Hajdu has asked both sides to continue bargaining.
A CUPE rep told media today that Air Canada has “not” been at the bargaining table.
Pay issues:
Ground pay exists across all airlines, according to Air Canada today. The employer stated in their press conference that there is duty pay for work done on the ground.
The union says that is only a fraction of what regular hourly pay would be. A CUPE rep says hourly pay is about $30 per hour.
“Everything progresses with seniority. By 10 years, a flight attendant is earning about $70,000,” said a CUPE rep who was interviewed after the press conference was interrupted.
Clearly the concept of paying full wages for only when the aircraft is in motion was developed over the years as a model that saw ‘delivery of service’ as physically getting the customer to their destination, thereby ‘no flight, no revenue’. Over the years the idea of the full customer experience has evolved in society in general but probably has not seeped into all corporate financial models.
Economic realities:
At this point, there does not seem to be much respect between the employer and the employees.
Both sides seem pressed to respond to larger economic circumstances.
If Air Canada were to pay all the demanded employee increases they would have to increase their passenger fares to a level that is out of whack compared to competitors and that would probably result in the loss of customers (revenue).
- Employees say their wages have not kept up with the spiraling cost of living but that is a larger problem impacting everyone in the country.
- If Air Canada does right by their employees it could cripple the company.
Larger economic factors need to be sorted out at a monetary policy level and with a more nuanced and flexible unemployment and retraining system for Canadian workers. Capitalism functions by the use of paid labou but corporations are not obliged to resolve larger economic issues beyond what works for their enterprise.
“A lot of things are going on about the cost of living for a lot of people in this country,” a CUPE rep who has been at the bargaining table told media on live TV this morning.
Bending boundaries:
Both parties to this dispute seem to be bending or breaking boundaries. CUPE protesters entered the live media session in Toronto this morning. They were silent and stood in the room. Normally protesters would be forced (after being asked) to leave. That level of management of the Air Canada press conference did not happen; more protesters entered the venue.
Air Canada then cancelled the press conference, short-changing media of the availability to report on their views for the benefit of the Canadian public. But then a CUPE rep got air time.
Signs held by protestors said things like: Poverty Wages = Uncanadian
“There’s still time. If we talk there still could get to an agreement,” the CUPE rep said. “We want a contract. We don’t want to go on strike. We love our customers, it’s our livelihood.”
===== RELATED:
- Air Canada flight attendants ignore back to work order (August 17, 2025)
- Jobs minister orders Air Canada flight attendants back to work (August 16, 2025)
- Air Canada continues pre-strike wind-down (August 15, 2025)
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