Wednesday morning could see thousands of Canadian travellers double-checking travel plans for the August long weekend, as the results of a strike vote held by about 4,400 unionized WestJet flight attendants are expected.
If they vote in favour, union members represented by CUPE Local 8125 could legally walk off the job on Sunday Aug. 2, effectively grounding WestJet, Canada’s second-largest airline, the day before a statutory holiday in many provinces. WestJet could also lock out flight attendants as of that date should it choose to, because a federal “cooling off” period will have ended.
Either side would need to provide 72 hours’ notice, so Canadians may be waiting until the end of the month to know whether their August flights will take off.
WestJet has been negotiating with unionized flight attendants for its primary “mainline” flights since late 2025. The previous contract between the Canadian Union of Public Employees and the airline ran from March 1, 2021, until the end of last year.
The company’s CEO, Alexis von Hoensbroech, told reporters he recognizes that the age of the previous contract is part of the reason why a new deal could need “significant improvement.”
“It was done in the middle of the pandemic, so there’s a lot of catch-up to be done because they fell behind inflation,” von Hoensbroech said.
“We are the second-largest carrier in Canada, and we are among some of the lowest paid, and that has to change,” said CUPE 8125 president Alia Hussain, a WestJet flight attendant.
Much like the major dispute between Air Canada and its flight attendants in the summer of 2025, WestJet is facing accusations from CUPE in this round of contract talks that its members aren’t fairly compensated.
“The issues sound a little familiar, if you remember last summer with Air Canada,” said John Gradek, an aviation management lecturer at McGill University in Montreal.
“It’s not as if WestJet didn’t know this was coming,” said Gradek, who told CBC Calgary on Monday that he believes the airline has not recognized that its largest competitor has shifted how it pays workers.
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“They haven’t even met the Air Canada position, which is not acceptable,” he said, adding that the federal government has also been looking into this since that airline’s 2025 dispute.
“Every time we board a plane, we aren’t getting paid,” WestJet flight attendants say in a smooth Instagram video, with the union saying an average of 35 hours a month are unpaid for duties including assisting passengers with boarding and deplaning, or delays on the ground.
The union pins this on what its president calls “an archaic system” but WestJet defends as a
“standard pay model across North America.” Hoensbroech said that “under our current contract, [flight attendants] are being paid for every hour worked.”
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WestJet flight attendants are paid a set amount of “credit hours” that can change per flight, depending on its length. The airline’s position is that to make up for additional duties during what can appear to be unpaid hours, the “credit hour” wage is higher than what it believes a standard hourly wage would be.
Both the WestJet and Air Canada unions have argued this payment method also doesn’t take flight delays or other unplanned circumstances into account, where the cabin crew may not be flying but are still on duty.
The union has posted calculations online showing what it says are multiple schedules from May and June that would pay its flight attendants less than the federal minimum wage of $18.15 per hour.
However, WestJet has published a self-audit that monitored 40 flight attendants for nine months and found only four potential examples where someone did not receive minimum wage. The company blamed the employees in those cases for “self-modifcation” to their schedule, such as trading shifts.
Speaking to reporters on Tuesday morning, the airline’s CEO seemed receptive to changing the payment system but was firm that any changes need to be sustainable and financially sound for WestJet.
“We hear them loud and clear that they want a change, and we are ready to change that. If they want a different way on how we credit the hours, then it’s fine with us,” von Hoensbroech said, adding that federal conciliators are “still around” as both sides continue bargaining.
But Calgary-based flight attendant Cameron Jones told CBC News he doesn’t feel there’s been much of a shift when it comes to how he and his colleagues are paid.
“The fact that we’ve been at the bargaining table for 10 months and we haven’t seen significant movement in this area is honestly surprising. And it’s unfortunate that we’ve had to come to this point of taking a strike vote,” said Jones, who is also part of the union’s local executive committee.
“Maybe take a look at how you bargain and reconsider your approach,” said Hussain, the local union president, who said a strike vote doesn’t mean negotiations with WestJet will stop.
“We’re committed 24/7 to get a deal done, so we don’t affect the very people that pay our mortgages.”
Von Hoensbroech echoed that perspective. When asked if WestJet had contingency plans for passengers in the event of a strike or lockout, he said Canadians “should expect that we and the union are sitting at the table to come up with an agreement.”
While CUPE says other sticky negotiating points remain over flight attendants’ schedules and wage levels, WestJet has pointed out online that the two sides have agreed to 32 collective agreement items, with another 35 articles still in progress.
WestJet last experienced a major labour dispute in the summer of 2024, when unionized airline mechanics went on strike over the Canada Day long weekend, affecting tens of thousands of travellers.
