{"id":839625,"date":"2026-08-01T04:18:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-01T04:18:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/839625\/"},"modified":"2026-08-01T04:18:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-01T04:18:09","slug":"westjet-parks-boeing-737-aircraft-as-strike-deadline-looms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/839625\/","title":{"rendered":"WestJet parks Boeing 737 aircraft as strike deadline looms"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

A WestJet aircraft parks at Calgary International Airport on Thursday, three days ahead of a potential flight attendants’ strike.Amir Salehi\/The Globe and Mail<\/p>\n

WestJet and the union representing more than 4,000 of its flight attendants continue to be in tense negotiations ahead of a looming Sunday strike deadline, which could see hundreds of flights cancelled on a busy summer long weekend. <\/p>\n

An internal e-mail from a senior WestJet executive to cabin crew sent midday Friday and obtained by The Globe and Mail states that the WestJet negotiating team was \u201cdeeply disappointed\u201d that they were unable to reach an agreement with the union as of Friday even after they put their best offer forward. <\/p>\n

\u201cYour union was unable to accept an offer that we believe would have represented a transformative step forward for cabin crew at WestJet and established a new benchmark within the Canadian airline industry,\u201d read the e-mail sent by Robert Antoniuk, vice-president of in-flight operations, to flight attendants. <\/p>\n

Earlier on Friday, WestJet began parking its Boeing 737 aircraft to prepare for the potential strike. Airlines usually take this proactive measure to minimize the risk of guests and aircraft getting stranded. The Calgary-based carrier has advised customers to check the status of their flights prior to leaving the airport and is allowing those travelling between July 30 and Aug. 4 to make a one-time change or cancellation at no additional cost. <\/p>\n

CUPE 8125, the local representing WestJet flight attendants, issued a 72-hour strike notice<\/a> on Thursday, meaning that workers could go on strike as early as 12:01 a.m. Mountain Time on Sunday. <\/p>\n

The airline and the union are mainly at odds over hourly wages and ground pay, which is the amount cabin crew get paid before a flight departs and after it has landed. <\/p>\n

The union argues that flight attendants effectively do not get paid for pre-boarding work they do, but WestJet disputes that notion, saying that cabin crew do get indirectly compensated for that work through a system known as \u201ccredit hours.\u201d A credit-hour rate is a negotiated hourly rate that the airline says accounts for work that flight attendants do on the ground. <\/p>\n

Explainer: Why and when WestJet flight attendants could strike, and how it may affect you<\/a><\/p>\n

The e-mail details WestJet\u2019s monetary offer to the union.<\/p>\n

Specifically, the airline has agreed to a CUPE proposal for pre- and post-boarding compensation through \u201cduty premium payments that supplement the credit system,\u201d and directly addressed union concerns about compensation for every hour of work performed on either side of a flight. <\/p>\n

WestJet also agreed to a cumulative wage increase of 36 per cent over four years \u2013 which would include the duty premium payments. <\/p>\n

\u201cTogether, these changes addressed the top issues the union consistently identified as its priorities throughout bargaining. The proposal would have provided meaningful improvements for cabin crew, making us the only airline in Canada to have an hourly rate for everything, while exceeding the total compensation benchmark established in the most recent peer collective agreement,\u201d the e-mail states. \u201cThis is why today\u2019s situation is so disappointing,\u201d Mr. Antoniuk wrote. <\/p>\n

In an e-mail to the Globe, CUPE 8125 president Alia Hussain said that what WestJet shared in its message was \u201ca small part of a very large contract.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe aren\u2019t just bargaining a few things, we are seeking a comprehensive contract that reflects the priorities of our members.\u201d Ms. Hussain added that she is still hopeful a strike can be avoided. <\/p>\n

Fifteen months into his tenure as Prime Minister, Carney is drawing the ire of union heads<\/a><\/p>\n

The wage proposal from WestJet appears to be a greater increase than what Air Canada flight attendants received after they went on strike last summer over similar issues. <\/p>\n

Their August, 2025, contract guaranteed junior Air Canada flight attendants an immediate 12 per cent raise, and an additional 8.25 per cent over the remaining three years. More senior flight attendants received 8 per cent in the first year. But the tentative agreement was never ratified by flight attendants, with 99.1 per cent of them rejecting it.<\/p>\n

In February, an arbitrator determined the terms of the contract, and maintained the proposed wage increases, much to the disappointment of flight attendants and the CUPE local representing Air Canada cabin crew. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: A WestJet aircraft parks at Calgary International Airport on Thursday, three days ahead…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":839626,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[901,888,902,879,877,903,45,49,48,876,895,896,891,878,875,46,549,295,894,887,914,880,881,893,889,890,884,904,885,909,910,912,907,911,905,908,882,898,899,714,897,906,865,61,900,892,886,883,913],"class_list":["post-839625","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-alberta","tag-arts-news","tag-bc","tag-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news-video","tag-british-columbia","tag-business","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canada-news","tag-canada-sports","tag-canada-sports-news","tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","tag-canadian-breaking-news","tag-canadian-news","tag-economy","tag-education","tag-environment","tag-federal-government","tag-foreign-news","tag-globe-and-mail","tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","tag-government","tag-life-news","tag-lifestyle","tag-local-news","tag-manitoba","tag-national-news","tag-new-brunswick","tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","tag-northwest-territories","tag-nova-scotia","tag-nunavut","tag-ontario","tag-pei","tag-photos","tag-political-news","tag-political-opinion","tag-politics","tag-politics-news","tag-quebec","tag-sports-news","tag-technology","tag-travel","tag-trudeau","tag-us-news","tag-world-news","tag-yukon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/839625","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=839625"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/839625\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/839626"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=839625"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=839625"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=839625"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}