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Air Canada flight attendants are going back to work after agreeing to a deal that ends a tense strike that led to over 2,700 flights being canceled.
After negotiations restarted Monday night, the union announced early Tuesday that it had reached a tentative agreement after mediation had concluded.
It added that the union worked through the night, from 7 p.m. to 4:23 a.m.
The Air Canada Component of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) represents over 10,000 cabin crew members at the flag carrier and its low-cost subsidiary, Air Canada Rouge.
Almost all of the airline’s 700 daily flights have been canceled since the strike began in the early hours of Saturday morning, affecting hundreds of thousands of passengers.
Per data from FlightAware, 2,733 flights operated by the airline and its subsidiary Air Canada Rouge have been canceled since the strike began.
In a research note, analysts at Raymond James estimated that the strike would impact the airline’s third-quarter earnings by 150 million to 400 million Canadian dollars ($109 million to $289 million).
Air Canada on Monday suspended its guidance for the third quarter and the full year, which it had reported in late July.
Earlier this month, 99.7% of CUPE members voted to strike if necessary.
CUPE said Air Canada withdrew from the bargaining table last Tuesday, and the union issued a notice of its intent to strike the following day.
After flight attendants walked off the job early Saturday, Canada’s jobs and families minister, Patty Hajdu, ordered the flight attendants back to work.
As the union refused, the Canada Industrial Relations Board then ruled the strike illegal.
“We will not be returning to the skies this afternoon,” CUPE national president Mark Hancock said at a news conference on Monday, CBC reported. “If it means folks like me going to jail, then so be it,” he added.
The union was fighting for pay increases and compensation for flight attendants’ work before takeoff.
Details of Tuesday’s tentative agreement have not yet been revealed, but the union is about to present it to members.
Air Canada previously said it had offered pay increases worth 38% over four years, but the union said this didn’t account for inflation and was actually worth 17.2% over four years.
It also said the airline had offered 50% pay for some duties on the ground, but the union wanted full hourly pay for these.
The post The Air Canada strike that crippled operations, led to thousands of cancellations, and could cost it nearly $300 million, is over appeared first on Business Insider.
