Air Canada's unionized flight attendants reached a deal on Tuesday to end the first strike by the cabin crew of the country's largest carrier in 40 years, which had upended travel plans for hundreds of thousands of passengers.
The union first announced the agreement early Tuesday after talks with Air Canada resumed talks late Monday for the first time since the strike began over the weekend and at the peak of the summer travel season.
The strike that lasted nearly four days had led the airline to withdraw its third quarter and full-year earnings guidance.
Air Canada said it would gradually resume operations as of Tuesday evening and a full restoration may require a week or more, while the union said it has completed mediation with the airline and its low-cost affiliate Air Canada Rouge.
"The strike has ended. We have a tentative agreement we will bring forward to you," the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) said in a Facebook post, as the strike entered its fourth day.
Air Canada said some flights will be canceled over the next seven to 10 days until the schedule is stabilized and that customers with canceled flights can choose between a refund, travel credit or rebooking on another airline.
The carrier had earlier offered a 38% increase in total compensation for flight attendants over four years, with a 25% raise in the first year, which the union deemed insufficient.
The flight attendants walked off the job on Saturday after contract talks with the carrier failed. They had sought pay for tasks such as boarding passengers. While details of the negotiations were not immediately released, the union said the unpaid work was over.
The CUPE, which represents Air Canada's 10,400 flight attendants, wanted to make gains on unpaid work that go beyond recent advances secured by their counterparts at U.S. carriers like American Airlines.
In a rare act of defiance, the union remained on strike even after the Canada Industrial Relations Board declared its action unlawful.
Their refusal to follow a federal labor board order for the flight attendants to return to work had created a three-way standoff between the company, workers and the government.
Labor leaders objected to the Canadian government's repeated use of a law that cuts off workers' right to strike and forces them into arbitration, a step the government took in recent years with workers at ports, railways and elsewhere.
Jobs Minister Patty Hajdu had urged both sides to consider government mediation and raised pressure on Air Canada on Monday, promising to investigate allegations of unpaid work in the airline sector.
Over the past two years, unions in aerospace, construction, airline and rail sectors have pushed employers for higher pay, improved conditions and better benefits amid a tight labor market.
Air Canada's flight attendants have for months argued new contracts should include pay for work done on the ground, such as boarding passengers.
Air Canada operates around 700 flights per day and is part of the global Star Alliance of airlines. The airline estimated Monday that 500,000 customers would be affected by flight cancellations.
The carrier and its low-cost affiliate Air Canada Rouge normally carry about 130,000 customers a day. The airline is also the foreign carrier with the largest number of flights to the U.S.
Aviation analytics firm Cirium said that as of Monday afternoon, Air Canada had called off at least 1,219 domestic flights and 1,339 international flights since last Thursday, when the carrier began gradually suspending its operations ahead of the strike and lockout.
Chief executive Michael Rousseau said restarting a major carrier is a complex undertaking.
"Full restoration may require a week or more, so we ask for our customers' patience and understanding over the coming days," Rousseau said in a statement.
While many customers had expressed support for the flight attendants, frustration with flight cancellations was growing.
Retiree Klaus Hickman missed a flight to Toronto earlier in the week. While he rebooked on another airline, he was concerned about returning to Calgary on time for a connecting flight to Germany.
Hickman sympathizes with workers demanding better pay but is worried about his own health and travel challenges.
"They want to get more money to survive. And so it is with everybody else," he said.
James Numfor, 38, from Regina, Saskatchewan, had been stranded in Toronto for two nights since returning from Cameroon for his brother's funeral. Air Canada only provided one night in a hotel for his family before leaving them without further support, he said.
He had slept in the airport with his family.
