{"id":835672,"date":"2026-07-30T10:25:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-30T10:25:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/835672\/"},"modified":"2026-07-30T10:25:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-30T10:25:10","slug":"westjet-flight-attendants-union-serves-72-hour-strike-notice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/835672\/","title":{"rendered":"WestJet flight attendants’ union serves 72-hour strike notice"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The union representing 4,400 flight attendants at WestJet says it has issued a 72-hour strike notice, paving the runway for a possible strike during a busy summer travel season.<\/p>\n

The Canadian Union of Public Employees says the two sides remain far apart on key issues.<\/p>\n

“We have been clear about what needs to change, and we have worked hard to reach a fair deal,” Alia Hussain, chair of the union’s WestJet contingent, said in a news release early Thursday.<\/p>\n

“There’s still time to avoid a strike,” Hussain added. “We will continue to bargain around the clock until this is resolved.”<\/p>\n

WestJet, in a statement, said the airline responded to the union’s strike notice by issuing a 72-hour lockout notice.<\/p>\n

\"TheJob action could begin as soon as Sunday at 12:01 a.m. MT if the two sides don’t reach a deal. (Jeff McIntosh\/The Canadian Press)<\/p>\n

The air carrier \u2014 the second-largest in Canada \u2014 said it is still actively negotiating to reach a deal.<\/p>\n

“The decision to issue a lockout notice, in response to the actions taken by the union, was not one that was made lightly. We sincerely regret the inconvenience and uncertainty this continues to cause for our guests,” said WestJet CEO Alexis von Hoensbroech in the statement.<\/p>\n

“We greatly value the work and contributions of our cabin crew, and it is our responsibility to ensure the integrity of our network and to minimize the risk of stranding our guests, crew and aircraft.”<\/p>\n

While serving notice does not commit the union to a strike, job action could begin as soon as Sunday at 12:01 a.m. MT if the two sides don’t reach a deal.<\/p>\n

WATCH | Canada’s second-largest airline could see a summer strike: :\"\"<\/p>\n

WestJet preps shutdown ahead of possible flight attendants strike<\/p>\n

Despite ongoing talks, WestJet and its flight attendants have signed off on a plan to wind down operations ahead of a possible long-weekend strike. Some 4,400 union members could walk off the job this Sunday.<\/p>\n

Unless a tentative agreement is reached, some flights could start to be grounded by Friday.<\/p>\n

WestJet has been allowing passengers with flights scheduled any time between July 30 and Aug. 4 to make a one-time change or cancel it with no fee.<\/p>\n

Travellers booked on its regional WestJet Encore service or code-share flights run by an airline partner such as Delta Air Lines will not be affected by a strike, the carrier said.<\/p>\n

Should flight delays or cancellations occur, the airline said impacted guests will be refunded or reaccommodated, “as applicable.”<\/p>\n

The two sides this week also inked an agreement that lays out how to ground planes and get cabin crew home in the event of a work stoppage.<\/p>\n

Unpaid ground duties key issue for union<\/p>\n

Cabin crew working a flight when any job action kicks off would complete the trip to its destination. Those who can’t immediately return to their home city would receive hotel accommodation for up to a week or a plane ride back to another Canadian city, “subject to seat availability,” according to the deal.<\/p>\n

The union has said key issues include unpaid work for tasks such as ground duties, while WestJet has said all duties are compensated through a “credit hour” system rather than an hourly rate.<\/p>\n

John Gradek, who teaches aviation management at McGill University, has said even a brief shutdown would cost the carrier millions of dollars during the height of summer travel \u2014 on a long weekend across much of Canada.<\/p>\n

The airline says it operates more than 600 flights per day carrying legions of passengers \u2014 more than 70,000 on some days. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to this article Estimated 3 minutes The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":835673,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[45,49,48],"class_list":["post-835672","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-ca","tag-canada"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/835672","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=835672"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/835672\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/835673"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=835672"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=835672"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=835672"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}