The Current - Will Air Canada and its flight attendants reach a deal before a strike?

Episode Date: August 14, 2025

Air Canada will begin cancelling flights today ahead of a possible weekend strike by more than 10,000 flight attendants. We speak with union leader Natasha Stea about the breakdown in negotiations over pay, work rules and unpaid hours — and what’s at stake for passengers if no deal is reached.

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Certain conditions apply. This is a CBC podcast. Hello, I'm Matt Galloway, and this is the current podcast. Air Canada says it will begin canceling flights today, ahead of a potential strike by more than 10,000 of the airline's flight attendants. About 130,000 customers a day could be affected by the disruption. This comes after the two sides failed to reach an agreement on key issues, such as wages, work rules, and unpaid hours.

Natasha Stea is the Canadian Union of Public Employees President for the Air Canada flight attendants in Montreal. She's part of the bargaining team at the table with the airline and has been a flight attendant herself for 25 years. Natasha, good morning. Good morning. Thanks for having me. Of course. Why are flight attendants set to strike? There's so many factors, but the biggest two are the fact that the employer is refusing to negotiate freely with us. And the first one is really our salaries that need to be addressed. What do you mean they're not willing to negotiate freely?

What do you mean by that? So since we've given our strike notice, the employer has not come back to the table to talk to us to try to resolve this before deadline of almost midnight on the, sorry, almost 1 a.m. on the 16th. Okay, we'll talk a little bit more about some of that in a moment. But first of all, the main sticking points between your union and the company, one of them you talked about is wages and unpaid labor. Tell me a little bit about that. So right now, our starting flight attendants at Rouge will start with a salary that's below minimum wage. They're poverty wages, we call them.

They're basically making 1,952 a month, which is so much lower than federal minimum wage. but it's to address also all the unpaid labor that we do on average about 35 hours a month So when you give those numbers for how much they're making hourly Is that because you're factoring in the unpaid work? No, not even.

It's really their takeaway salary for the work they perform that's being compensated by the employer it doesn't even include that time because we're getting nothing for it. Okay, describe that unpaid labor. does that come to be? It's a very archaic way of compensating flight attendants in the industry, but things have changed. I've been reminded, you know, back in the 70s, we actually could get

married now and have children and still be flight attendants. Things have evolved over the years, and so the way we're getting compensated needs to change for the industry now. Because what you're saying is, unless you're in the air, you're not getting paid, Is that, okay. Exactly, exactly. Do other airlines pay for ground duty hours, or is that sort of the industry standard? It used to be the industry standard, but right now we've got a couple of airlines in Canada that have addressed this issue in Europe. It's been addressed as well.

In the States, we have a couple of comparators down there that have addressed this. So, Canada would not be the first. We're not asking them to break this glass ceiling. We're just trying to keep up with the changes in the industry. Air Canada has said in a statement that it's offered a 38% increase in compensation over four years saying this would make you and your fellow flight attendants, quote, the best compensated in Canada. What did you make of that part of their offer? Well, we never got that offer. The offer we got was 8% for the first year.

that is under inflation. Inflation has been 9%. And just to compare that even with an 8% increase, the first year, our flight attendants at starting salary would get $2,108 a month. Federal minimum wage at 40 hours a week, monthly would be 2,840.

So you're saying the employer never presented the union with this 38% over four years? No. Okay. We are hearing from the Minister of Jobs and Families this morning, Patty Heidu has said, and we know that this is happening, that the employer has suggested that this be put towards binding arbitration and has asked the minister to do that. And she said in her statement, I have asked the union to respond to the employer's request. What can you tell me about that response? Respond to what request? request to I guess submit to binding arbitration oh sorry we did we did the the employer suggested that and we would like to negotiate with the employer as it is our right under the charter of rights so you're not interested in binding arbitration at this point not at this point no if just to go back to the 38% if that was on the table and that's what the with the with the employer is saying, or Canada is saying, would that be enough? Well, I have to see the offer. I really can't comment on something that I have no details about.

Last October Air Canada pilots voted in favor of a new contract with the airline, winning a 42% increase over four years without strike action or a lockout. Why do you think this action hasn't had the same outcome? I could not tell you. I'm sorry. Have you found that there's parity between how pilots are treated in flight attendants? Absolutely not. Tell me a little bit more about that. We are mostly female workers. We are mostly underpaid workers.

We are a bigger group. It's different. We're not licensed like pilots as well. It is different to a certain degree, but we are front-facing employees that are just looking to make ends meet. And you've been one of these front-facing employees, a flight attendant for some 25 years. Why have you done it for so long? If there are all of these particular scenarios that unpaid labor and the wages being low, why do you keep doing it? So when I started in 98, actually, my salary was quite similar to what it is right now at starting wage.

So so many things have changed the industry, the economy. And so this plight that we're fighting right now is not something that was always there. I've always loved my job. I still love my job. I love my passengers. I love what I do. I like the crazy schedule. This is for me.

And dare I say, I'm really good at it. And my passengers love being on my flights. and I help them out and reassure them if they're nervous during turbulence. It's something that I love doing, and a lot of flight attendants love their job and don't want to give up this beautiful career that they're fantastic at. So I don't know why in Canada we have to choose between loving our job and making ends meet. You talked about the passengers. How do you feel?

because there are a lot of Canadians who are very worried about where their summer vacations will go if they've already purchased tickets and they can't, you know, delay them until September. How should Canadians understand the timing of this potential strike? It's heartbreaking. I'm going to be very honest with you. It's heartbreaking because I know how expensive these tickets are. I know how people save their whole year and plan and are either going on vacation to get away from stuff. They're going to see loved ones. They're going to share in a special occasion, a wedding, sometimes for funerals.

This is not what we want. We just want to negotiate to get an agreement so we can make ends meet. It's only a tool that we use to pressure the employer to come to the table. And it seems like it's falling on deaf ears. You say they haven't been willing to meet with you in the last number of days, but we are hearing this morning here Canada is holding a media availability with senior executives today. How do you feel knowing that, if what you say is true that you haven't actually seen all the details of the current offer, how do you feel knowing that they are willing to speak to the media today? I'm disappointed, frustrated.

Are you hopeful that there will be a deal before Saturday? That's the only thing I could be is hopeful that this could get resolved for passengers. out there and for flight attendants for their livelihood. Okay. Natasha Estia, thank you for your time this morning. Thank you very much for your time. Natasha Estia is the Canadian Union of Public Employees President for the Air Canada Flight Attendance in Montreal. This has been the current podcast.

You can hear our show Monday to Friday on CBC Radio 1 at 8.30 a.m. at all time zones. You can also listen online at cbc.ca slash the current or on the CBC Listen app or wherever you get your podcasts. My name is Matt Galloway. Thanks for listening. For more CBC podcasts, go to cbc.ca.ca slash podcasts.