Air Canada flight attendants hold strike vote

Earlier this week, the Air Canada Component of the Canadian Union of Public Employees posted an update on their website regarding contract negotiations.

The Air Canada Component represents over 10,000 flight attendants employed by Air Canada. These workers are based out of Calgary, Montréal, Toronto, and Vancouver; although there has been some concern that Air Canada plans to close the Calgary base in the future, which Air Canada denies.

Their most recent collective agreement with Air Canada expired this past March.

ACC reached out to Air Canada last December to inform the employer that they were ready to begin negotiations on a new contract. According to their most recent collective agreement, they can issue a notice to bargain as soon as 4 months before expiry.

This will be the first collective agreement that they have negotiated in over a decade, since they ratified their last 3 contracts at the same time, back in 2015.

Bargaining with the employer began on 11 December, nearly two weeks after the workers’ bargaining committee filed their motion.

However, by May, discussions began to break down. Progress had been slower than the workers’ bargaining committee had anticipated, and despite the employer indicating early in the process that they wanted a fair and timely deal, they ultimately did not live up to this statement.

As a result, Air Canada Component filed a notice of dispute with the federal government and requested assistance with conciliation. Conciliators were assigned for mediation, kicking off the 60-day conciliation process, as of 26 May 2025. The conciliators were Yann S. Donnelly, Michelle D. Glubrecht, Robert J. Orr, and Peter Simpson.

The ACC bargaining committee had prepared for a year and a half for these negotiations, including surveying workers on what the bargaining priorities were. These priorities can be classified under 4 main areas.

• Wage increases and ending unpaid work
• Improved expense allowances
• Fair rest and scheduling protections
• Stronger working conditions

These issues were captured in a survey the bargaining committee distributed to members during the bargaining process. Here are the labour issues most frequently cited by the survey respondents.

Unpaid work	91%
Wages and cost of living	88%
Scheduling and fatigue	72%
Feeling respected by management	41%
Safety and security	34%
Career progression	23%

Typically, Air Canada pays flight attendants for labour they perform only when the plane is moving. Some flight attendants provide up to 35 hours a month in labour that Air Canada never pays for. That is a week’s worth of free labour (at 7 hours per day) every month.

If a flight is delayed at the gate for an hour, for example, Air Canada generally will not pay the flight attendants for that hour, even though they are at work and have no choice but to be there.

Regarding wages, AAC is not participating in open bargaining, so they have not published what they are asking for in increases. That being said, there are some things we can anticipte.

For example, in their last 3 contracts, they received a 2% increase in every year.

1 April 2016	2%
1 April 2017	2%
1 April 2018	2%
1 April 2019	2%
1 April 2020	2%
1 April 2021	2%
1 April 2022	2%
1 April 2023	2%
1 April 2024	2%

That is a combined increase of 18% (or 19.51% if we account for compounding increases) between 2016 and 2024, well, 2025, since that is when the last contract ended.

In comparison, the national consumer price index increased from 126.2 in April 2105 and 160.6 in April 2024. That is a jump of 34.4 points, or 27.26%.

With a wage increase of 18% (19.51%) but inflation at 27.26%, these workers are behind 9.26% (7.75%) in real wages heading into bargaining. They should have been getting 3.03% (2.86%) each year in their last 3 agreements, not 2%.

This means that Air Canada should be offering them at least 9.26% (7.75%) in the first year of their new contract, just so they can catch up to the increased cost of living.

Also, last December, the union launched the Flight Plan Podcast. In the first episode, Wesley Lesosky, the president of ACC, claimed that the starting wage for flight attendants is only $27,000.

Post-COVID, we’ve really seen a lot of shift and a lot of changes. Our purchasing power has gone down, cost of living has gone up. And our entry-level wage right now is sitting at roughly $27,000 a year.

In that same podcast episode, Lesosky reported that the minimum wage in Canada has increased 153% since 2003, while the average full-time wage in Canada has increased 101%. In comparison, “the entry-level wage at Air Canada mainline for flight attendants is only up 11%”.

Unfortunately, the conciliation process concluded last week, but no tentative agreement emerged. Several key issues—including pay, per diems, unpaid work, pension, work rules, and prone rest—remain unresolved.

This kicks off a mandatory 21-day cooling off period, which could put the workers in a legal strike position as of 16 August 2025.

When the members asked what work actions they supported to pressure Air Canada into making concessions, the number one response was striking. Only 4% of respondents said they would not participate in any work action.

Strike	89%
Work-to-rule	73%
Social media campaigns	68%
Public demonstrations	61%
Talking to media	37%
I would not participate in any action	4%

Voting on whether to strike began this past Monday (28th), and will end next Tuesday (5th).

The bargaining committee has been holding information sessions for the workers to help them understand what happened in bargaining and what going on strike would mean. These sessions began on Monday and the final one is today at 10:00 Mountain Time.

Should a majority of the workers vote to strike, it would not automatically mean they would go on strike. The bargaining committee could take the vote results, especially if it is a strong majority, back to the bargaining table as leverage in negotiation.

Update (5 August 2025): According to an update published by CUPE, workers voted 99.7% in favour of strike action. They could be in a legal strike as soon as 16 August 2025, unless Air Canada comes back to the table with a reasonable offer that respects the labour and time of these workers.