Air Canada flight attendants massively reject wage offer, union says

Employment lawyer Keith Burkhardt breaks down how the arbitration process will likely unfold between the union and Air Canada.

Air Canada flight attendants have massively rejected the employer’s wage offer following a vote on a new contract that ended Saturday.

Flight attendants at Air Canada wrapped up voting at 3 p.m. ET on the tentative new contract, with 99.1 per cent voting down the airline’s wage offer.

The airline says the wage portion will now be referred to mediation as previously agreed to by both sides.

“Air Canada and CUPE contemplated this potential outcome and mutually agreed that if the tentative agreement was not ratified, the wage portion would be referred to mediation and, if no agreement was reached at that stage, to arbitration,” the airline said in a statement shortly after the results were released by the union.

“The parties also agreed that no labour disruption could be initiated, and therefore there will be no strike or lockout, and flights will continue to operate.”

“Air Canada is fully committed to the mediation and arbitration process,” the airline added.

The Air Canada component of the Canadian Union of Public Employees says most terms would still form part of a new collective agreement with the airline, with the exception of the wage issue.

The tentative deal that was voted down, which ended a strike at the airline last month, raised wages for workers and established a pay structure for time worked when aircraft are on the ground.

It included a 12 per cent salary increase this year for most junior flight attendants and an eight per cent bump for more senior members, followed by smaller raises in subsequent years.

Voting opened Aug. 27 for the 10,000-plus members of the union.

The union said 99.4 per cent of membership took part in the vote.

The three-day strike ended Aug. 19 with the help of a federal mediator after upending thousands of customers’ travel plans.

“It is impossible to ignore the corrosive role the federal government played in these negotiations,” the union said in a statement on Saturday.

“Rather than maintaining their neutrality, the federal government kept their thumb on the scale throughout the bargaining process and gave Air Canada the leverage they needed to suppress flight attendants’ wages.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 6, 2025.