Wed | Jan 28, 2026

Air Canada and flight attendants union resume talks for the first time since strike began

Published:Monday | August 18, 2025 | 8:55 PM
People protest outside Air Canada headquarters in Montreal, Sunday, August 17, 2025, after the federal government is intervened in the labour dispute between the airline and the union representing its flight attendants, ordering binding arbitration and ope
Graham Hughes
People protest outside Air Canada headquarters in Montreal, Sunday, August 17, 2025, after the federal government is intervened in the labour dispute between the airline and the union representing its flight attendants, ordering binding arbitration and operations to resume. (Graham Hughes/The Canadian Press via AP)

TORONTO (AP) — Air Canada and the union representing 10,000 flight attendants resumed talks late Monday for the first time since the strike began over the weekend.

The strike is affecting about 130,000 travellers a day at the peak of the summer travel season.

It is the first time the two sides have talked since early Saturday or late Friday.

In an update to its members, the union said the airline reached out and the meeting occurred with the assistance of a mediator in Toronto.

It followed the union’s declaration that the flight attendants won’t return to work even though the strike, now in its third day, has been declared illegal.

Earlier, Air Canada said rolling cancellations would now extend Tuesday afternoon after the union defied a second return-to-work order. The country’s biggest airline had said earlier that operations would resume Monday evening but the union president said that won’t happen.

“We will not be returning to the skies,” said Mark Hancock, national president for Canadian Union of Public Employees, or CUPE, which also represents some non-public sectors.

The Canada Industrial Relations Board had declared the strike illegal Monday and ordered the flight attendants back on the job. But the union said it would defy the directive. Union leaders also ignored a weekend order to submit to binding arbitration and end the strike by Sunday afternoon.

The board, an independent administrative tribunal that interprets and applies Canada’s labour laws, had said the union needed to provide written notice to all of its members by noon Monday that they must resume their duties.

“If it means folks like me going to jail, then so be it. If it means our union being fined, then so be it,” Hancock said.

“We’re looking for a solution here. Our members want a solution here, but solution has to be found at the bargaining table.”

It was not immediately clear what recourse the board or the government have if the union continues to refuse.

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