TORONTO (AP) — Air Canada suspended plans to restart operations Sunday after the union representing 10,000 flight attendants said it will defy a return to work order. The strike was already affecting about 130,000 travelers per day during the peak summer travel season.
The Canada Industrial Relations Board ordered airline staff back to work by 2 p.m. Sunday after the government intervened and Air Canada said it planned to resume flights Sunday evening.
Canada’s largest airline now says it will resume flights Monday evening. Air Canada said in a statement that the union “illegally directed its flight attendant members to defy a direction from the Canadian Industrial Relations Board.”
“Our members are not going back to work,” Canadian Union of Public Employees national president Mark Hancock said outside Toronto’s Pearson International Airport. “We are saying no.”
Hancock ripped up a copy of the back-to-work order outside the airport’s departures terminal where union members were picketing Sunday morning. He said they won’t return Tuesday either.
Flight attendants chanted “Don’t blame me, blame AC” outside Pearson.
“Like many Canadians, the Minister is monitoring this situation closely. The Canada Industrial Relations Board is an independent tribunal,” Jennifer Kozelj, a spokeswoman for Federal Jobs Minister Patty Hajdu said in a emailed statement.
Hancock said the “whole process has been unfair” and said the union will challenge what it called an unconstitutional order.
Less than 12 hours after workers walked off the job, Hajdu ordered the 10,000 flight attendants back to work, saying now is not the time to take risks with the economy and noting the unprecedented tariffs the U.S. has imposed on Canada. Hajdu referred the work stoppage to the Canada Industrial Relations Board.
The airline said the CIRB has extended the term of the existing collective agreement until a new one is determined by the arbitrator.
The shutdown of Canada’s largest airline early Saturday was impacting about 130,000 people a day. Air Canada operates around 700 flights per day.
Tourist Mel Durston from southern England was trying to make the most of sightseeing in Canada. But she said she doesn’t have a way to continue her journey.
“We wanted to go see the Rockies, but we might not get there because of this,” Durston said. “We might have to head straight back.”
James Hart and Zahara Virani were visiting Toronto from Calgary, Alberta for what they thought would be a fun weekend. But they ended up paying $2,600 Canadian ($1,880) to fly with another airline on a later day after their Air Canada flight got canceled.
“It’s a little frustrating and stressful, but at the same time, I don’t blame the flight attendants at all,” Virani said. “What they’re asking for is not unreasonable whatsoever.”
Flight attendants walked off the job around 1 a.m. EDT on Saturday. Around the same time, Air Canada said it would begin locking flight attendants out of airports.