Air Canada suspends operations due to flight attendant strike

Air Canada suspended all operations when more than 10,000 flight attendants went on strike early Saturday after a deadline to reach an agreement passed, leaving stranded travelers around the world searching for alternatives in the midst of the summer travel season, AP reports from Toronto.

Hugh Pouliot, a spokesperson for the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), confirmed the start of the strike after a failed agreement, and the airline said shortly afterward that it would halt operations.

A bitter contract dispute between Canada's largest airline and the union representing 10,000 of its flight attendants escalated Friday when the group rejected the company's request for government-led arbitration , which would eliminate the right to strike and allow an outside mediator to decide the terms of a new contract.

The flight attendants walked off the job around 1:00 a.m. EDT on Saturday. At the same time, Air Canada announced it would begin blocking their access to airports.

Federal Employment Minister Patty Hajdu met with the airline and the union Friday night and urged them to work harder to reach an agreement "once and for all."

"It's unacceptable that so little progress has been made. Canadians are counting on both sides to do everything possible ," Hajdu said in a statement posted on social media.

Pouliot had previously noted that the union met with Hajdu and Air Canada representatives on Friday night.

"CUPE has contacted the mediator to convey our willingness to continue negotiating, despite Air Canada's failure to respond to our last two offers since Tuesday ," he stated in an email. "We are here to negotiate an agreement, not to go on strike."

A complete shutdown will affect approximately 130,000 people per day, and some 25,000 Canadians could be stranded abroad each day. Air Canada operates approximately 700 flights daily.

Alex Laroche , a 21-year-old Montreal resident, and his girlfriend had been saving up for their European vacation since Christmas. Now, their $8,000 non-refundable trip with accommodations hangs in the balance as they wait to hear from Air Canada about their Saturday night flight to Nice, France.

How long the airline's planes will remain grounded remains to be seen, but Air Canada Chief Operating Officer Mark Nasr indicated it could take up to a week to fully restart operations once a provisional agreement is reached.

Affected passengers can request a full refund on the company's website or mobile app, according to Air Canada.

The airline indicated it would offer travel alternatives through other Canadian and international carriers whenever possible. But it cautioned that it could not guarantee immediate flight rescheduling because other carriers' flights are already full "due to the summer travel peak."

Laroche said she considered booking new flights with another airline, but said most are almost full and cost more than double the $3,000 she paid for her original tickets. "At this point, it's just a wait-and-see approach," she said.

Although initially upset by the union's decision to strike, Laroche said he changed his mind after reading about key issues being negotiated in the contract, such as wages .

"Your salary is barely enough to live on"

Air Canada and the Canadian Union of Public Employees have been in contract talks for about eight months , but have not yet reached a provisional agreement.

Both sides maintain that they are far apart on the issue of wages and the unpaid work that flight attendants perform when planes are not in the air.

The airline's latest offer included a 38% increase in total compensation, including benefits and pensions, over four years, which it noted "would have made our flight attendants the highest-paid in Canada."

But the union rejected the offer, arguing that the 8% increase proposed for the first year was insufficient due to inflation .