Everyone Hates Airlines, Especially the Workers Set to Strike
The flying experience is increasingly miserable, for both passengers and the people working the cabin. While Air Canada executives rake in millions, flight attendants are unpaid for large parts of their job and ready to strike.
Air Canada flight attendants at Pearson International Airport on August 5, 2025. Air Canada flight attendants enter final day of strike mandate vote. (Michelle Mengsu Chang / Toronto Star via Getty Images)
More than ten thousand Air Canada flight attendants could soon be on strike if a deal isn’t reached by August 16.
In one of the strongest strike mandate votes in recent Canadian history, 99.7 percent of members in the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) airline division opted to authorize a strike, with a turnout of 94.6 percent. With this overwhelming strike authorization in hand, the union is now headed back to the bargaining table to make one last push for a deal before picket lines go up.
Flight attendants at Air Canada and its “leisure airline,” Air Canada Rouge, are fighting for an end to unpaid work and poverty wages at the country’s largest airline. Despite months of negotiations, Air Canada has yet to make meaningful movement on these union priorities. Flight attendants are clearly fed up.
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