WestJet flight attendants have voted 99.4 per cent in favour of a strike, which could leave many Canadian travellers facing potential flight disruptions amid summer vacations.
With the results of the vote coming in Wednesday morning, about 4,400 union members represented by CUPE Local 8125 could legally walk off the job as early as Aug. 2.
A strike would effectively ground Canada’s second-largest airline the day before a statutory holiday in many provinces.
- Montreal public health warns of overdose spike as naloxone use reaches last year’s total
- Saskatchewan boosts disaster aid in response to storm-packed spring and summer
- World champion curler, long-time broadcaster Don Duguid dies at 90
- Corus to centralize Calgary, Edmonton news production, some jobs cut
-
![]()
Cyclospora outbreak source not confirmed, health officials investigating link to lettuce, greens -
![]()
CN rail train drives through inferno as wildfires ravage northwestern Ontario -
![]()
WestJet flight attendants vote in favour of strike -
![]()
Immigration lawyer reacts as some “Lost Canadians” told to return citizenship certificate
A CUPE representative told Global News that 97.3 per cent of flight attendants participated in the vote. Negotiations between the two sides have been ongoing for about 10 months.
This would be the second consecutive summer in which Canadian air travellers are faced with the possibility of a labour disruption at one of the country’s major airlines, with 10,000 Air Canada flight attendants walking off the job last August over the issue of unpaid work.
Why aren’t all flights attendants in the same union, why does AC have one and WJ another.
Some say the unpaid work of the flight attendants is forced labour. What happens if the attendants refuse to work for free? Unions are here to put a stop to this.
Hey go for it. Canadians have LOTS of money to pay for greedy union workers.
100% agree with Jack. Unions have their time, and were important in their day. But now they are just fat cats with too much power, and are mainly motivated by politics more than working for their members. They have lost their way.
Just check out the lavish union buildings. They’re built for nothing other than ego.
Unions balance against monopoly employer power. If it weren’t for unions, we would all be working excessive hours with no safety standards, and have no vacation or benefits. Merit only gets one so far when your company pays low wages and/or your boss dislikes you because they don’t like your tattoo or whatever.
I bet most of these people do NOT deserve to make more money or get more benefits to begin with so no matter what, even the way wages are figured out is not the problem to me, the problem is UNIONS DEMAND ALL workers are entitled to ALL THE BENEFITS of a strike when really only one or the very few should be LIKE IN THE GOOD OLD DAYS WHEN A PERSON EARNED A WAGE INCREASE or promotion, not every worker. THIS is why I would like to see an end to UNIONS and how they work on behalf of ALL THEIR MEMBERS not just the ones who earned benefits from working hard.
All these people are asking is to be paid for unpaid work. That is eminently reasonable.
I think we are pretty tired of entitled unions getting greedy and using the public as blackmail. Canada Post striking over Christmas. Teachers during the school year. Flight attendants over summer.
None of them won any fans, or got any better deals than they would have before their strikes. Go ahead. Strike. You’re not that important. Hope you lose.
Hi there !WestJet is the reason I don’t fly ! From them not notifying customer’s of flight cancelation. As your at the Edmonton Airport .To being put on another flight which as well get’s canceled .
To them sticking me on a plane where my back has problems like buldging disk’s herniated disk’s and they nerve damage followed by a great dose of A.D..H.D so they give me a flight where the seats did’nt move right in front of the washroom . so I ended getting off the plane.I spent all day at the Airport. Then ended up driving 14 hours to my destination . Wow! Ya as far as Im concerned West Jet Lost the hospitality part of there manual.And with there mistake of adding more seat and cramping up spaces a few month’s ago , I knew this was coming there trying to scam us customer’s again ! Sorry West Jet ! If it was me . I would say a big fat No Deal ! and shut them down !
From what I read, things like pre-flight safety checks, passenger issues, training, and passenger boarding/deplaning are not paid for by the employer. This seems blatantly unfair. Who wants to do free work?
They remind me of toddlers having a tantrum because their mommy wouldn’t buy them candy