The recent labour dispute between Air Canada and its flight attendants pulled back the curtain on one of the airline industry’s longest-standing injustices: flight attendants are paid only when planes are in motion, a practice that has persisted for more than 60 years across the global aviation industry.
On August 14, Air Canada began cancelling flights ahead of a potential strike to allow an “orderly shutdown.” The strike started on August 16, but less than 12 hours into it, the federal government attempted to force binding arbitration between the airline and its union.
