Air Canada and Union Reach Tentative Agreement

Air Canada flight attendants were victorious in their strike

At around 4.23am Eastern time this morning, the union representing 10,000 flight attendants and Air Canada came to a tentative agreement, where the former get paid for at least 60 minutes when they are working on the ground, and a pay raise.

"Unpaid work is over. We have reclaimed our voice and our power," the union said in a statement.

Union and management have tentative agreement

Getting paid for the work flight attendants do before the plane leaves the gate is a massive breakthrough for the flight attendants, who have been fighting for this for months, and could set the industry standard globally. While there are a few smaller airlines who do pay their flight attendants for ground work, Air Canada is one of the first major international airlines to do so.

Although the union has yet to ratify the deal, the union advised its members to "fully co-operate with resumption of operations."

As a result, some flights resumed at around 4pm EST, though it will take international flights several days to restart. 

It's a massive victory for the flight attendants, who were defying the work-to-order and were even willing to go to jail for their disobedience. They stood their ground and waged a cohesive campaign across the country.

Nasr claimed ground pay was in the deal earlier

Meanwhile management were publicly perceived in a bad light and saw how angry passengers were for causing the disruptions and blamed it on them and not the flight attendants. That probably caused management to want to resolve the strike quickly.

But it didn't have to be this way! If management claimed they were willing to pay for ground pay all along, then why not say so?

"[Ground pay] absolutely should be in there, and we're so happy that we finally reached this industry-leading deal that allows our flight attendants to be compensated for the important work... that they perform on the ground," said Air Canada executive vice-president Mark Nasr.

He claimed ground pay had been part of the airline's proposed deal for workers for months...