Lates News

The Canadian government intervened on Saturday to end the strike by Air Canada flight attendants. The strike caused the cancellation of hundreds of flights and chaos for the summer travel plans of the company's 130,000 daily passengers. Air Canada is Canada's largest airline, flying to 180 cities worldwide, but all flights were grounded after about 10,000 flight attendants initiated the strike early Saturday morning due to a wage dispute. Hours later, Canadian Labor Minister Patty Hajdu invoked a legal provision to halt the strike and force both labor and management into binding arbitration. She stated that this was not a decision taken lightly, as the immediate negative impact on Canadian citizens and the Canadian economy could be significant, and Air Canada may take 5 to 10 days to resume normal operations. The Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), representing the workers in negotiations, stated that their members will continue the strike until the government officially orders them back to work. The union criticized the government's intervention as rewarding Air Canada for refusing fair negotiations and giving the company everything it wanted.