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TORONTO: Air Canada’s flight attendants went on strike Saturday, a work stoppage the airline has said will shut down service and create summer travel chaos for its 130,000 daily passengers.

“We are now officially on strike,” the Canadian Union of Public Employees, which represents Air Canada’s 10,000 flight attendants, said in a statement.

Air Canada, which transports about 130,000 passengers daily, had said it would gradually wind down operations ahead of the possible strike.

As of 8:00 p.m. Friday, the airline said it had canceled 623 flights affecting more than 100,000 passengers.

In addition to wage increases, the union says it wants to address uncompensated ground work, including during the boarding process.

Rafael Gomez, who heads the University of Toronto’s Center for Industrial Relations, said it’s “common practice, even around the world” to compensate flight attendants based on time spent in the air.

He said the union had built an effective communication campaign around the issue, creating a public perception of unfairness.

An average passenger, not familiar with common industry practice, could think, “’I’m waiting to board the plane and there’s a flight attendant helping me, but they’re technically not being paid for that work,’” he said.

“That’s a very good issue to highlight.”

Air Canada detailed its latest offer in a Thursday statement, specifying that under the terms, a senior flight attendant would on average make CAN$87,000 ($65,000) by 2027.

CUPE has described Air Canada’s offers as “below inflation (and) below market value.”

The union has also rejected requests from the federal government and Air Canada to resolve outstanding issues through independent arbitration.

Gomez said that if the flight attendants strike, he does not expect the stoppage to last long.

“This is peak season,” he said.

“The airline does not want to lose hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue... They’re almost playing chicken with the flight attendants.”

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico: Hurricane Erin strengthened into a Category 2 storm on Friday as it approached the northeast Caribbean, prompting forecasters to warn of possible flooding and landslides.

The storm is expected to remain over open waters, although tropical storm watches were issued for Anguilla, Barbuda, St. Martin, St. Barts, Saba, St. Eustatius and St. Maarten.

Heavy rains were forecast to start late Friday in Antigua and Barbuda, the US and British Virgin Islands and southern and eastern Puerto Rico. Up to 10 centimeters are expected, with isolated totals of up to 15 centimeters, according to the National Hurricane Center in Miami.

The hurricane center also warned of dangerous swells but said the threat of direct impacts in the Bahamas and along the east coast of the United States “appears to be gradually decreasing.”

The storm was located 405 kilometers northeast of Anguilla as of the hurricane center’s 11 p.m. EDT advisory. It had maximum sustained wind speeds of 160kph and was moving west north-west at 27kph.

Hurricane specialist and storm surge expert Michael Lowry said Erin is forecast to eventually take a sharp turn northeast that would put it on a path between the US and Bermuda.

“All of our best consensus aids show Erin turning safely east of the United States next week, but it’ll be a much closer call for Bermuda, which could land on the stronger eastern side of Erin,” he said.

Erin is the Atlantic season’s first hurricane. It is forecast to become a major Category 3 storm late this weekend and pass some 320 kilometers north of Puerto Rico.

The US government has deployed more than 200 employees from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and other agencies to Puerto Rico as a precaution as forecasters issued a flood watch for the entire US territory from late Friday into Monday.

Puerto Rico Housing Secretary Ciary Perez Pena said 367 shelters have been inspected and could be opened if needed.

The US Coast Guard said Friday that it closed six seaports in Puerto Rico and two in the US Virgin Islands to all incoming vessels unless they had received prior authorization.

Meanwhile, officials in the Bahamas said they prepared some public shelters as a precaution as they urged people to track the hurricane.

“These storms are very volatile and can make sudden shifts in movement,” said Aarone Sargent, managing director for the Bahamas’ disaster risk management authority.

Dangerous surf and rip currents are expected to affect the US East Coast next week, with waves reaching up to five meters along parts of the North Carolina coast that could cause beach erosion, according to AccuWeather.

“Erin is forecast to explode into a powerful Category 4 hurricane as it moves across very warm waters in the open Atlantic. Water temperatures at the surface and hundreds of feet deep are several degrees higher than the historical average,” said Alex DaSilva, AccuWeather’s lead hurricane expert.

Erin is the fifth named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season, which runs from June 1 to Nov. 30.

This year’s season is once again expected to be unusually busy. The forecast calls for six to 10 hurricanes, with three to five reaching major status with winds of more than 177kph.