Air Canada Strike

My daughter goes to graduate school in Honolulu and studies theoretical math.

Her very first conference as she nears the end of her studies is in Toronto, starting today. She booked Delta. Her advisor and others' itineraries, included legs with Air Canada. Her travel turned into a big mess which may or may not have anything to do with the strike, but it did take her over 30 hours to finally get to Toronto. Her advisors and others didn't make it to Toronto at all. Her advisor is doing his presentation via ZOOM.

She now will have 5 days at this conference as the only representative from her university. She doesn't know any of the attendees. She mentioned there is a huge group from Finland. She is passionate about her math, and I'm hoping that will be what she needs to meet people. I hope she will have fun.

This situation is one of the many reasons I am so glad that as a family, we traveled extensively all over the U.S. and a couple trips beyond.

Hi Jules,

Do you have any idea why it took your daughter over 30 hours to get from Honolulu to Toronto? Thirty hours is a lot of time!

And why did all the others also have so much difficulty?

Maybe there was some kind of solidarity with the flight attendants for Air Canada.

Your daughter is probably going to do real well, meeting. lot of new people.

Finland is beautiful. Maybe she will get invited to Finland for nextx summer.

The other folks had Air Canada flights that were cancelled. They had difficulty finding alternate flights. I know the Delta flights she and I’ve been on are typically full out of Hawaii.

When she got to Honolulu airport she was told her plane was late. So she sat in Honolulu a while. She was supposed to fly to Toronto thru Salt Lake. The late plane meant she’d miss her connecting. So she had to fly to LAX and had a longish layover to get a flight to Minneapolis. She had a 4.5 layover in Minneapolis (I went to the airport and we visited for a while) at 8:30pm, she left Minneapolis for Toronto.

And the early report is people are nice, lots of “math” talk, ample fresh fruit and treats! Believe it or not, fruit is expensive in Hawaii and on a grad student stipend, she doesn’t buy it often

I returned home from Canada on an Air Canada flight just last Monday and just in time before the strike began this past weekend.

I have another flight on Air Canada to return from Italy in a few weeks.

I would hope the company will come to its senses and stop forcing its flight attendants to work for free when passengers are boarding the plane, explaining emergency procedures and doing safety checks— everything they do before the plane pulls away from the gate and again at the gate after landing.

No hourly worker should have to put in hours of work for any employer and not be compensated for their time at work.

And no one should have to work for wages below the federal minimum wage.

Talks are continuing this evening to resolve this mess.

Let’s hope a fair resolution can be quickly reached.

I thought I had heard at some point that flight attendants on all/most airlines are not paid for their time until the plane is off the ground. Not that it makes sense.

Delta Airlines, American Airlines and Alaska Airlines now include compensation to their flight attendants for time worked before the aircraft has pulled away from the gate. Some smaller airlines also compensate their ground crews for this time. United Airlines is also moving in this direction.

The flight attendants’ union, the Canadian Union of Public Employees ( CUPE) has filed a lawsuit in the Canadian Federal courts challenging the authority of the government to order them back to work. CUPE maintains that if they can be ordered to end the strike, then they have no real right to collectively bargain.

Public opinion polls of Canadians show the public—86%—overwhelmingly supports the flight attendants having a livable wage and compensation for hours worked. And a majority of Canadians also think the government should not mandate an end to the strike.

Meanwhile, representatives from Air Canada and the Canadian Union of Public Employees have returned to talks tonight with a mediator also participating in the discussions.

"No hourly worker should have to put in hours of work for any employer and not be compensated for their time at work. And no one should have to work for wages below the federal minimum wage."

Not to mention the 500 million dollar stock buyback for 2024.

Not to mention the 500 million dollar stock buyback just for this part of 2025.

This was reported on another site I follow. If this is mistaken I would appreciate a correction.

Air Canada pays its Junior Flight Attendants CAD $1,952 per month ( Folks, that is US $1,413 or barely more than US$8 per hour). The federal minimum wage for a full-time Canadian worker is CAD $2,840 which means Air Canada has its Junior Flight Attendants working at 31% BELOW the Federal minimum wage.

Just imagine trying to live on $8 an hour. Some of these Air Canada employees reportedly are living in their cars and are going to food banks to get groceries.

Meanwhile, the CEO of Air Canada, Mr. Michael Rousseau, makes more than $12 million per year.

That works out to $5,682 per hour—assuming that he actually works 40 hours per week.

Associated Press
Tue, August 19, 2025 at 2:48 AM PDT

TORONTO (AP) — Union for Air Canada flight attendants says it has reached a tentative agreement with the airline to end strike.

jules m

I know that your daughter is probably having a wonderful time.

With math in common, what more does she and the others need to hit it off.

I cruised Hawaii with NCL Pride of America some years back.

So beautiful. do not remember where or how I ate but I know that it was probably expensive

Thanks to all who responded

If you are being paid an hourly wage for any employer, you should be getting paid for every minute when on the clock.

When it comes to the airline industry, what difference does it make if you are flying or not. Those airline personnel are working hard getting us excited passengers settled when getting on and helping us excited passengers getting off..

I support the airline personnel but am sorry that it may be so difficult for some travelers who are stranded. Stranded at home is bad enough but what about those persons who are stranded abroad and may be on a tight budget.

Even if a deal has been reached, it may take time to get back to whatever is normal.

Kenko has correctly described the parameters. Nobody could survive in Vancouver or Toronto (or Montreal) @$8 per hour.
To be clear: this was all about AC's greedy executives and greedier shareholders. The near-strike by pilots a while back was prompted by AC pilots earning 40% less than their colleagues elsewhere.

I am done. the greed

The flight attendants pay is way more than $8.00 per hour. You cannot divide the monthly pay based on a forty hour work week. They usually work about 100 hours or less a month. That will give you a much more accurate hourly compensation. Hourly pay aside, it does not seem justifiable to start work but not get paid until the plane is in motion. That covers the pilots also. Next time anyone boards or deboards a plane look around and see how the crew is working, they are not just standing there. Hopefully all airlines will be able to work out the pay structure the Air Canada crew will now receive.