A tentative agreement has been reached to end the strike by Air Canada’s 10,000 flight attendants, their union announced early Tuesday.
Talks between the airline and the union resumed late Monday, marking the first negotiations since industrial action began over the weekend.
Air Canada is the country’s largest airline and the strike, coming during the peak summer travel season, is affecting about 130,000 travelers per day.
A key issue, guaranteeing pay for work performed while aircraft are on the ground, has been resolved.
This breakthrough follows the union’s previous declaration that its members would not return to work, despite the strike being deemed illegal.
The ruling from the Canada Industrial Relations Board (CIRB) Monday came after the flight attendants defied an earlier return-to-work order that also told them to submit to arbitration.
“The members of the union’s bargaining unit are directed to resume the performance of their duties immediately and to refrain from engaging in unlawful strike activities,” the CIRB said in a written decision.
The board, an independent administrative tribunal that interprets and applies Canada’s labor laws, said the union needed to provide written notice to all of its members by noon Monday that they must resume their duties.
The panel previously ordered airline staff back to work by 2 p.m. Sunday after the government intervened and Air Canada said it planned to resume flights Sunday evening. But when the workers refused, the airline said it would resume flights Monday evening instead.
Air Canada said in a statement that the union “illegally directed its flight attendant members to defy a direction from the Canadian Industrial Relations Board.”
Air Canada operates around 700 flights per day. Flight attendants walked off the job around 1 a.m. EDT on Saturday. Around the same time, Air Canada said it would begin locking flight attendants out of airports.
