The walkout by 4,400 cabin crew forced more than 300 cancellations at Canada's second-largest airline. The dispute centers on wages and how ground duties before and after flights are compensated.
The Canadian Union of Public Employees announced a strike by WestJet flight attendants on Sunday. The union represents about 4,400 cabin crew members at WestJet. More than 300 flights had been canceled by early Sunday.
WestJet said it could not operate scheduled Boeing 737 or 787 flights during the strike. Encore flights on Q400 aircraft and partner-operated code-share flights remained unaffected. WestJet said affected travelers would receive refunds or rebooking assistance.
Canada was in a three-day holiday weekend when the walkout began. Ground-duty compensation had also been central to a recent Air Canada cabin-crew strike. Travelers who booked through third parties may need to work through those agents.
The checked record also defines what is not yet established. The duration was unknown, the parties described compensation differently, and cancellation totals were continuing to change. This distinction prevents an announcement, allegation, estimate or early field report from being presented as a completed or independently proven event.
At the August 2 publication cutoff, the next evidence expected to update this account is a negotiated settlement or government action and updated cancellation counts and restoration schedules. Those future developments are not assumed here; they will require a responsible source, a dated public record or independently verifiable reporting.
The source pages retained below support the numerical values, sequence and attributed statements in this report. Statements from interested parties establish what those parties said or did, but they do not independently prove every claim embedded in those statements. No image is included because a rights-cleared visual was not necessary to report the facts.
This edition preserves the difference between the immediate event and its operating context. Canada was in a three-day holiday weekend when the walkout began. Ground-duty compensation had also been central to a recent Air Canada cabin-crew strike. Travelers who booked through third parties may need to work through those agents. The article will remain fixed at this cutoff even if a later investigation, corrected total, weather observation or implementation record changes the public understanding.