A labour friendly government would outlaw the practice so unions wouldn't have to waste money and effort fighting this obviously unacceptable bullshit. Wish we had one!

I really hope they give in to the very reasonable demands of being paid while at work and get this fixed by Friday because I fly out Saturday on WestJet.

FA’s don’t really get paid a “higher hourly rate”. In the US it’s been a sticking point for decades, especially at smaller airlines, that FA’s qualify pretty easily for food stamps or other public assistance. Also, what isn’t mentioned is that “door closed” doesn’t mean you get paid. The airlines have installed various systems that track when the aircraft actually pushes back and made that the start of the pay clock and not the closing of the door, so everyone can sit at the gate, closed up and ready to go, and not get paid while waiting out a gate hold for whatever reason. There’s lots of little gotchas the airlines make up to not get paid. Pilots IMO are mostly finally getting paid decently after decades of poor pay (again, especially at smaller airlines) but FA’s have been on instant top ramen wages for a long, long time even after years of working for a company.

Blocks on - blocks off must end, for cabin crew and for flight crew (pilots).

You could prepare a flight, be delayed, and do 5 extra hours work for free, or worse, flight cancelled after many hours: no pay.

It doesn't sound like the values that most Canadians have but it sure sounds like the values that most corporations have.