Edmonton’s Air Canada union workers say arbitration order ‘defeats the purpose’

A group of workers represented by Air Canada's union begin their strike outside the Edmonton International Airport on Aug. 16, 2025. (Brandon Lynch/CTV News Edmonton)

As Federal Jobs Minister Patty Hajdu calls for binding arbitration in the Air Canada flight attendant strike, union workers in Edmonton say they aren’t pleased.

Designated strike captain Christine Langelle told CTV News Edmonton on Saturday that ordering workers back to the job “defeats the purpose.”

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“We’re waiting to hear from our union leaders who are negotiating, so everything is status quo until then,” she said. “We’re not pleased with the arbitration order, but that’s what it’s come down to.”

An arbitration order would mean that the existing collective agreement between Air Canada and flight attendants represented by the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) would be extended until a new agreement is reached.

“We’ve been living on a 10-year contract that finally expired. A lot has changed in the last 10 years,” Langelle said.

Langelle has worked as a flight attendant for 30 years and commutes from Edmonton to Vancouver. She and a group of coworkers organized outside Edmonton International Airport.

While Edmonton isn’t one of the bigger bases, she said it was still important for them to come out and show their support.

“There are flight attendants living in major cities who are not even making minimum wage, visiting food banks and living numerous people to an apartment,” Langelle said.

Representatives of the CUPE group that covers Air Canada sent a release early Saturday morning denouncing the invocation of section 107 of the Canada Labour Code to end the strike, saying it was “crushing flight attendants’ Charter rights.”

“The Liberals have talked out of both sides of their mouths. They said the best place for this is at the bargaining table. They refused to correct this historic injustice through legislation,” said President of Air Canada’s union Wesley Lesosky in the release.

Meanwhile, would-be Air Canada travellers are making alternate arrangements.

“The last couple of days have been super stressful,” said Trina Swan, who was at the YEG airport Saturday. Her son is playing in the Canada Summer Games in Newfoundland.

“I knew [the flight] was going to get cancelled, so I was looking for alternate routes, panicked as heck and crying a lot the last couple days,” she told CTV News Edmonton.

She said she was lucky that an agent at the airport was able to rebook her as she couldn’t get through to Air Canada by phone when she first got the cancellation.

“You can only do what you can do when people are only human, you can’t get mad at the staff,” she said.

Late Saturday afternoon, Alberta NDP leader Naheed Nenshi released a statement calling the federal government’s decision wrong and unfair to workers.

“It is wrong for the federal government to force these workers to go to work and not be paid. No one should stand for that. This move also sets a dangerous precedent and sends the wrong message to Air Canada instead of holding this very profitable company accountable,” read the release.

Union representatives have said they will communicate “detailed reactions” on Sunday.

With files from CTV News National and CTV News Edmonton’s Brandon Lynch