After months of stalled negotiations, 10,000 Air Canada flight attendants walked off the job early Saturday morning. The federal government stepped in hours later to order binding arbitration, forcing an end to the strike — or so they thought.

Thousands of Air Canada flight attendants have defied a government back-to-work order Sunday, according to their union. The country’s largest airline, whose collective agreement with the flight attendants expired in March,

When Nanaimo residents Jeff McRae and Melissa Green got an email Thursday from Air Canada saying that their trip home from Montreal, scheduled for Saturday morning, might be affected by a labour dispute, they thought it would be best to cancel the flight.

Several Air Canada customers visited the Regina International Airport on Saturday to try and sort out flights later in the week. On Saturday afternoon flight attendants were called back to work after Jobs Minister Patty Hajdu invoked binding arbitration.