The Canada Industrial Relations Board had declared the strike illegal earlier on Monday and ordered the striking flight attendants back on the job. But the union said it will defy this second return to work order, after an earlier one had been ignored. The earlier one also ordered the union to submit to arbitration.

Air Canada and the union representing 10,000 striking flight attendants were holding early discussions on Monday night, the union said in a statement, the first such talks in nearly a week. In a rare act of defiance,

Air Canada's unionized flight attendants walked off the job on Saturday demanding the airline address wages and jobs performed while still on the ground for which they are currently unpaid.