More than 300 flights were canceled Sunday after WestJet flight attendants walked off the job in a dispute over pay, disrupting holiday weekend travel across Canada.
The strike was announced by the Canadian Union of Public Employees, which represents 4,400 cabin crew at the airline. WestJet, Canada's second-largest carrier and a Delta Airlines partner, confirmed the strike and said it could not operate any of its scheduled flights on Boeing 737s or 787s. Travelers will be refunded or re-accommodated, the airline said.
According to CBS News, a central issue in the dispute was how flight attendants should be paid for duties performed while still on the ground. The union argued that some of that work goes unpaid. WestJet said its staff was compensated through a "credit hour" system rather than a straight hourly rate.
WestJet CEO Alexis von Hoensbroech said the company had put forward a significant proposal before talks broke down. "We presented a proposal that would have set a new standard for cabin crew in Canada, making WestJet the only airline to offer an hourly rate covering all time before and after flights, plus a double-digit wage increase in year one among other priorities the union raised," he said. "Unfortunately, it wasn't accepted."
Alia Hussain, president of the union chapter representing the cabin crew, said her negotiators "tried until the very last minute to get a fair deal that recognizes the value of the work cabin crews do." She said the airline's offer simply did not go far enough.
Both sides said Sunday they were willing to return to the table.
Passengers who booked directly with WestJet will be contacted by email. Those who booked through a travel agent or third-party platform are being directed to contact those services. WestJet Encore flights operating on Q400 aircraft and code-share flights run by partner airlines are not affected by the strike.
The walkout comes almost exactly one year after flight attendants at Air Canada, the country's largest carrier, stranded more than 100,000 travelers during peak travel season. That strike was also partly over the issue of ground pay. It lasted three days before both sides reached an agreement.
