Air Canada flight attendants defy government's order to return to work

Some 10,000 Air Canada flight attendants decided Monday to spurn a back-to-work order from the Canada Industrial Relations Board (CIRB), with their union’s leader vowing to go to jail if necessary.

The board has declared the strike illegal, with Air Canada saying that 700 flights a day are being cancelled, impacting approximately 500,000 customers.

The CIRB ordered the flight attendants to immediately return to work. The directive was met with defiance, despite the threat of significant penalties such as fines and jail.

"We will not be returning to the skies this afternoon," Mark Hancock, national president of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), which represents the striking attendants, said at a news conference, CBC News reported.

At issue is better pay and a new method of payment before a plane takes to the skies.

"If it means folks like me going to jail, then so be it. If it means our union being fined, then so be it," Hancock said.

Hancock said Air Canada and the CIRB are in the wrong by interfering with the collective bargaining process.

“None of us want to be in defiance of the law," he said. "We're looking for a solution here. Our members want a solution here. But that solution has to be found at a bargaining table."

Prime Minister Mark Carney said Monday that flight attendants should be equitably paid and called for a rapid solution to the dispute.

The attendants walked off the job on Saturday.