Air Transat Flight Attendants Reject Tentative Labor Agreement

Air Transat flight attendants overwhelmingly rejected a tentative agreement with the Canadian carrier this week, again raising the possibility of a strike.

The flight attendants’ union, which is represented by the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), said that the deal was rejected partly because scheduled raises for its members don’t keep up with higher living costs. According to Reuters, the proposal would have given cabin crew pay increases of about 18% over five years.

While the expectation is now that CUPE and Air Transat will again resume talks, the union could strike as soon as late this week—the flight attendants, who are required to give 72 hours’ notice before striking, voted to authorize a strike mandate in November.

Air Transat, for its part, said it was “keen” to reach a new agreement quickly and that the last agreement, which had been approved by a union executive, had seemed to “meet the interest of both parties,” before union members voted it down.

“We had reached a tentative agreement negotiated in good faith, which met the interests of both parties,” Julie Lamontagne, Chief People, Sustainability and Communications Officer of Transat, said in a statement on Tuesday. “We are disappointed by this outcome, as we were confident that the tentative agreement would be accepted by the majority of our flight attendants. We are returning to the bargaining table, and our objective remains to find common ground as soon as possible.”

Possible strikes by cabin crews have become regular since the travel industry’s post-pandemic rebound. Just last month, flight attendants for Southwest Airlines voted down their own tentative contract.