WestJet, one of Canada’s largest airlines, canceled hundreds of trips on Sunday as the company’s flight attendants walked off the job after a breakdown in negotiations over a new labor contract.
Union organizers said negotiations in Calgary had resumed, even as the strike by more than 4,000 flight attendants sent passengers scrambling to make other travel arrangements.
WestJet said it had canceled 600 flights since Friday during what is a long weekend in most parts of Canada. The airline’s most popular routes are domestic, but flights to other destinations — including the United States, Europe and Asia — were also affected. During peak travel seasons, WestJet carries up to 70,000 passengers per day.
Flight attendants, some wearing the company’s teal and navy blue uniforms, formed picket lines outside Canada’s largest airports in Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver and Calgary. The flight attendants are lobbying for an increase in wages and to be compensated not only while flights are in the air, but for the time spent on currently unpaid ground duties, including passenger boarding and safety presentations.
The Canadian Union of Public Employees, the labor organization representing the 4,400 flight attendants, said in a Facebook post on Sunday morning that the strike began shortly after 2 a.m. Eastern, after union negotiators failed to reach an agreement with the airline.
Alia Hussain, the president of the local union chapter, said that WestJet’s latest offer did not go far enough and called on the Canadian government to let negotiations continue without interference.
“We tried until the very last minute to get a fair deal that recognizes the value of the work cabin crews do,” Ms. Hussain said in a statement on Sunday. “We would not be here if they had taken our concerns seriously for almost 11 months of bargaining.”
The union had provided a 72-hour notice on July 30 that workers would go on strike if a new contract with the company were not reached by Sunday.
In response to the union’s strike notice, the airline issued a lockout notice, which can involve withholding paychecks and preventing employees from working.
In a statement on Sunday, WestJet said it was willing to continue negotiating after the union rejected an offer to increase wages and pay an hourly rate for ground duties.
“We presented a proposal that would have set a new standard for cabin crew in Canada,” Alexis von Hoensbroech, the airline’s chief executive, said in a statement. “Unfortunately, it wasn’t accepted.”
All passengers affected by the strike, which prevents WestJet from flying its Boeing 737 and 787 aircraft, will be refunded or reaccommodated, the airline said.
WestJet Airlines is Canada’s second-largest carrier, after Air Canada, and began operating in 1996 as a low-cost carrier with three aircraft. It was purchased in 2019 by a Toronto-based private equity firm, Onex Corporation, and flies nearly 200 planes to more than 100 destinations.
It is the second major disruption to Canadian air travel in a year. Last summer, the Canadian government ordered a binding arbitration to shut down a strike by 10,000 flight attendants for Air Canada that began largely over similar compensation issues.
The walkout lasted a little less than 12 hours, but it disrupted thousands of travelers over several days. In February, an arbitrator settled the contract that included partial pay for work by Air Canada flight attendants while on the ground.
In recent years, some major U.S. airlines, including Delta, American and Alaska, have started paying flight attendants for work performed while planes are on the ground.
