WestJet reaches tentative deal with flight attendants after brief strike snarled traffic

Canada’s second largest airline, WestJet, has agreed to a tentative agreement with flight attendants to end a strike that led to hundreds of flight cancellations and thousands of stranded passengers over the weekend.

The union representing the flight attendants said Monday that if the deal is ratified, the work that flight attendants do before flights take off will be recognized.

The union, CUPE 8125, said that flight attendants will be returning to work now that the strike is over. The tentative agreement still faces a ratification vote.

WestJet cancelled 495 flights Sunday, snarling travel plans in Canada in the middle of a long holiday weekend.

A key issue in the dispute was how flight attendants should be paid for duties performed while still on the ground. The union said some of that work is unpaid, while the company said they staff was indeed compensated, citing pay through a “credit hour” system rather than an hourly rate.

“This tentative agreement represents meaningful progress," CUPE 8125 President Alia Hussain said in a statement. “It evolves the flight credit system by recognizing more of the work cabin crew are required to perform and with general increases to compensation for that work.”

The Canadian Union of Public Employees represents the 4,400 cabin crew at the airline.

The deal comes after 250,000 travelers had their trips canceled, according to WestJet. Some struggled to find accommodations while they were stranded away from home, and others were left unable to reschedule flights.

“We are pleased to have reached a tentative agreement that reflects the hard work and professionalism of our cabin crew,” WestJet CEO Alexis von Hoensbroech said in a statement. “We know this disruption has been frustrating for our guests and WestJetters and we’re sorry for that. Our teams are working hard to restore service and get our guests on their way to their destinations as quickly as possible and we appreciate everyone’s patience as we get back to normal.”

Before the strike began, WestJet had made a proposal that included a 13% wage increase in October, increases of 2.5% each January for the next three years, retroactive wage payment to last January, additional pay for all hours worked, and upgrades to other benefits, according to WestJet. Alia Hussain, president of the union that represents the cabin crew, had said that although negotiators tried until the very last minute to get a fair deal, what the airline proposed didn’t go far enough.

Last summer flight attendants at Air Canada, the country’s largest carrier, stranded more than 100,000 travelers during peak travel season with a strike partly over the same issue of unpaid groundwork. That work stoppage lasted three days before the sides came to an agreement.

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AP reporters Jim Morris and Michelle Chapman contributed to this report.

WestJet flights are pictured cancelled on an information board at Vancouver International Airport in Richmond, British Columbia, Sunday, Aug. 2, 2026. (Ethan Cairns/The Canadian Press via AP)

A traveller looks to an information board as WestJet flights are cancelled at Vancouver International Airport in Richmond, British Columbia, Sunday, Aug. 2, 2026. (Ethan Cairns/The Canadian Press via AP)

A traveller tries to check in for a cancelled WestJet flight at Vancouver International Airport in Richmond, British Columbia, Sunday, Aug. 2, 2026. (Ethan Cairns/The Canadian Press via AP)

WestJet flight attendants strike at Vancouver International Airport in Richmond, British Columbia, Sunday, Aug. 2, 2026. (Ethan Cairns/The Canadian Press via AP)

Maryland lawmakers kicked off a special session Monday to consider a first step in a partisan redistricting initiative that could help Democrats pick up an additional U.S. House seat by 2028.

The General Assembly was set to begin debate on a proposed constitutional amendment intended to give Democrats greater latitude to draw congressional maps favoring their party, which currently represents seven of the state's eight House districts. The proposal would have to be approved by voters before lawmakers could begin considering new district lines.

Deep blue Maryland’s move, which the state's minority Republicans have called a blatant power grab, is the latest turn in the national battle over redistricting, which kicked off a year ago and has reshaped the U.S. House map ahead of this year’s midterms.

Democratic state Senate President Bill Ferguson blocked a different redistricting initiative earlier this year that could have put new maps in place before the fall elections, worried the move could backfire upon judicial review. But he has said his views shifted after the U.S. Supreme Court weakened the Voting Rights Act in late April. That decision offered new grounds for Republicans to swiftly reconfigure districts in Southern states with large minority populations that have elected Democrats, moves that Ferguson called “painful” to watch.

“It felt like the unwinding of any type of democratic norms in the blink of an eye,” Ferguson said in an interview.

Maryland's lone Republican representative in Congress is Rep. Andy Harris, chairperson of the House Freedom Caucus. Harris' 1st District is centered on the mostly rural Eastern Shore, part of a scenic peninsula separated from the rest of the state by the Chesapeake Bay.

In 2021, lawmakers tried to remake the maps in a way that made Harris' district more competitive for a Democrat to win, drawing in communities across the bay. But a judge struck down those districts in 2022, calling them a “product of extreme partisan gerrymandering.”

In light of that decision and in hopes of avoiding future adverse legal rulings, lawmakers will consider legislation to amend the state constitution to make clear that the parameters the judge cited — including that districts be compact in form and have regard given to “natural boundaries” — apply only to General Assembly districts, not congressional ones.

If approved by a three-fifths vote of both chambers, the amendment would go before voters in the Nov. 3 general election. If approved there, lawmakers could revisit the congressional maps for the 2028 election cycle under the constitution’s new guidance.

Ferguson told reporters Monday that future changes to the maps could depend on the outcome of the November midterms.

In advance of the special session, Republicans criticized the move by Democrats and raised concerns about limits set on testimony for the special session.

“We are very concerned with the significant limitations on witnesses, and the reality that any bill hearing is obviously intended to be a brief and meaningless formality,” House Minority Leader Jason Buckel said in a statement.

Harris, in an interview, said the “gerrymandering that this constitutional amendment sets up” would break up areas of common interest into districts predominated by urban and suburban areas, disenfranchising rural voters. Such a move would “of course” face a court challenge, he said.

Gov. Wes Moore, a Democrat who has expressed frustration over lawmakers' refusal to redistrict earlier this year, cast the move as an urgent necessity in light of Republican moves elsewhere. The proposal currently before lawmakers will ultimately give voters, not “party bosses,” the final say, he said.

“And if the people determine that there’s nothing to do, then there’s nothing to do. But if the people determine that we move, we move,” he said in an interview as he became chair of the National Governors Association.

Maryland’s special session is part of a new phase in a national redistricting battle that began a year ago, when President Donald Trump urged Republican-led states to redraw congressional districts to help the party hold on to its slim House majority in the midterm elections. Republicans think they could win as many as 16 additional seats from new House maps enacted in eight states — Texas, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio, Florida, Tennessee, Louisiana and Alabama. Democrats, whose counterattack faced several setbacks, think they could win up to six additional seats from new districts in California and Utah.

Now some states, such as Maryland and New York, are taking steps to redraw congressional districts ahead of the 2028 elections. New York’s Democratic-led Legislature has approved a proposed constitutional amendment to authorize mid-decade redistricting, repeal prohibitions on partisan gerrymandering and make it easier for lawmakers to bypass an independent redistricting commission in the future. The measure needs another round of legislative approval next year before it can appear on a statewide ballot.

Associated Press reporters David A. Lieb in Jefferson City, Missouri, and Steven Sloan in Oklahoma City contributed to this report.

FILE - Wes Moore, governor of Maryland, speaks during the National Action Network (NAN) Convention in New York, April 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Angelina Katsanis, File)

FILE - The Maryland State House in Annapolis, Md., June 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Robert Yoon, File)