The Canadian government intervenes to end the Air Canada strike.

The Canadian government intervened on Saturday to end the strike by Air Canada flight attendants. The strike resulted in hundreds of flights being cancelled, causing chaos for the 130,000 passengers who travel with the company daily during the summer. Air Canada is the largest airline in Canada, with direct flights to 180 cities worldwide. However, the airline was completely grounded after about 10,000 flight attendants went on strike early Saturday morning due to a wage dispute. Hours later, Canadian Minister of Labour Patty Hajdu invoked legal provisions to halt the strike and force both labor and management into a binding arbitration process. She stated that this was not a decision taken lightly, as the immediate negative impact on the Canadian people and economy could be significant, and it may take Air Canada 5 to 10 days to resume normal operations. The Canadian Union of Public Employees, representing the employees in negotiations, stated that union members would continue the strike until the government officially ordered them back to work. The union criticized the government's intervention, claiming it rewarded Air Canada for refusing to engage in fair negotiations and gave the company everything it wanted.