Air Canada operations halted due to flight attendants' strike, thousands of passengers affected
Air Canada: Air Canada's air service was badly affected by the strike of more than 10,000 flight attendants. This complete shutdown will affect about 1,30,000 people per day, and about 25,000 Canadians may be stranded abroad every day. Air Canada operates about 700 flights per day.
The airline suspended all flights on Saturday as a result of the Air Canada flight attendants' strike. It impacted the travel of thousands of people during the summer rush season. According to Canadian Union of Public Employees spokesman Hugh Pouliot, over 10,000 airline flight attendants struck after no settlement was reached.
The contentious struggle on the contract between Canada's biggest airline and the union that represents its 10,000 flight attendants intensified on Friday. The union spurned the airline's offer to submit to government-mandated arbitration. This would have eliminated its strike right and allowed a third-party arbitrator to settle the terms of the new contract.
Air Canada and the Canadian Union of Public Employees have been in contract talks for about eight months, but they have not yet reached a tentative agreement. Both sides say they have differences over wages and the issue of unpaid work done by flight attendants when planes are not flying.
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Flight attendants walked off the job on Saturday. After this Air Canada said that it would start evacuating flight attendants from airports. This complete shutdown will affect about 1,30,000 people per day, and about 25,000 Canadians per day could be stranded abroad. Air Canada operates about 700 flights per day. How long the airline's planes will not fly remains to be seen. However, Air Canada Chief Operating Officer Mark Nasser has said that once a tentative agreement is reached, it could take up to a week to fully resume operations.
