A strike by thousands of Air Canada flight attendants caused travel chaos and hundreds of flight cancellations across the country on Saturday, including 24 at Los Angeles International Airport and two at John Wayne Airport.
The Canadian government quickly stepped in Saturday morning, shutting down the strike by imposing binding arbitration and forcing the flight attendants back to work.
“It has now become clear that this dispute won’t be resolved at the table,” Canada’s labor minister Patty Hajdu said in a statement, adding that the government must act to preserve stability and supply chains.
The strike started about 10 p.m. Friday and was brought by the Canada Union of Public Employees, which represents roughly 10,000 flight attendants at Air Canada and Air Canada Rouge. The dispute was tied to contract negotiations over unpaid work and low wages, according to a statement from the union.
Air Canada operates around 700 flights per day and started winding down operations two days ago in anticipation of the planned strike, at the time estimating it would affect about 130,000 customers.
The airline said it would notify customers on canceled flights of their options, saying it deeply regrets the effect of the labor dispute.
An independent industrial relations board will review the dispute over the next two days. According to Hajdu, it could take Air Canada five to 10 days to ramp back up to regular services.
Canada is no stranger to air travel strikes. Last year, pilots for WestJet Airlines, the country’s second-largest airline behind Air Canada, threatened to strike over a new contract. The same year, a plane mechanics union went on strike over wages, leading to hundreds of WestJet flight cancellations.
Air travel strikes have popped up in the U.S. as well. Around 500 Spirit Airlines pilots went on strike for five days in 2010, leading to hundreds of flight cancellations. In 2023, LAX workers voted to authorize a strike over stalls in contract negotiations.
