Air Canada flight attendants, airline reach agreement to end strike

Air Canada flight attendants have ended a strike that forced hundreds of flight cancellations since Saturday, after reaching a tentative deal with the airline in mediated talks that stretched more than nine hours and concluded early Tuesday.

“The strike has ended. We have a tentative agreement we will bring forward to you,” the union announced in a statement on its website.

The walkout, centred on pay and working conditions, including compensation for boarding duties, disrupted travel for about 130,000 passengers daily.

The union, which represents 10,400 flight attendants under the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), had defied government back-to-work orders, arguing its demands were justified.

Air Canada had earlier proposed a 38% increase in total compensation over four years, including a 25% raise in the first year, but the union rejected the offer as insufficient.

Flight attendants have long sought pay for tasks such as boarding, which are currently unpaid; wages are only counted from the moment an aircraft begins moving.

CUPE pressed to secure advances beyond those won recently by flight attendants at US airlines such as American Airlines.

The tentative agreement brings immediate relief to the carrier, which had cancelled hundreds of flights during the work stoppage.

Air Canada and its low-cost unit, Air Canada Rouge, normally serve about 130,000 passengers daily and operate the most flights to the US of any foreign airline.

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