Air Canada staff refuse government back-to-work order with plans to restart flights now at risk
Thousands of Air Canada flight attendants that are on strike will not return to work on Sunday, defying a government order to resume operations by this afternoon, according to their union.
“We will be challenging this blatantly unconstitutional order that violates the charter rights of 10,000 flight attendants, 70 percent of whom are women, and 100 percent of whom are forced to do hours of unpaid work by their employer every time they come to work,” the Canadian Union of Public Employees said in a statement to media outlets. “We remain on strike. We demand a fair, negotiated contract and to be compensated for all hours worked.”
Air Canada, whose collective agreement with the flight attendants expired in March, said earlier Sunday the Canada Industrial Relations Board had directed the carrier to resume operations and have the striking workers return to their posts by 2 p.m. Eastern time.
The independent’s board’s move came after federal labor minister Patty Hajdu intervened in the dispute on Saturday, less than 12 hours after the roughly 10,000 workers walked off the job, ordering the board to use binding arbitration to end the dispute.
In a statement, Air Canada said the union was “illegally” defying the government return-to-work orders, and that approximately 240 flights that had been scheduled to resume on Sunday had been cancelled.
“The airline will resume flights as of tomorrow evening,” Air Canada added.
This is a breaking news story and will be updated with new information.
