If you believe labor activists, Air Canada had a genius plan to avoid bargaining with disgruntled flight attendants and instead get the Canadian government to “do their dirty work for them”… forcing flight attendants back to work and accepting binding arbitration to resolve a messy contract dispute.
If true, that plan almost worked. In fact, the ploy to get flight attendants back in the skies was so close to succeeding that Air Canada was even getting airplanes ready to resume normal scheduled flying.
What Air Canada didn’t account for, though, it seems, is that flight attendants would simply ignore the government and continue their strike in the face of a legal notice to end their walkout.
What was already one of the messiest aviation labor disputes in decades has become even more fraught as the CUPE union faces a showdown with both Air Canada and Mark Carney’s Liberal administration in Ottawa.
How did we get to this point?
Air Canada and the flight attendant union have been trying to negotiate a new contract for months. The CUPE union demanded big pay rises and the end to ‘forced’ unpaid labor. Progress was slow, and the two sides appeared far apart on major aspects of the contract.
With negotiations failing to progress, earlier this month, flight attendants took part in a strike vote. More than 99% of Air Canada’s 10,000-strong flight attendant workforce voted in favor of a walkout if a deal couldn’t be done.
Last Tuesday, last-ditch talks to avoid a flight attendant strike ended in failure after Air Canada declared an impasse in negotiations. The airline wanted the union to agree to binding arbitration and appealed to the government to force their hand.
The government didn’t immediately intervene, and a 72-hour strike notice was declared. At the same time, Air Canada decided to issue its own lockout notice, meaning that flight attendants were not allowed to work even if they wanted to.
Air Canada started to wind down its operations on Thursday in preparation for a total shutdown on Saturday.
Just hours after the lockout took effect, Minister of Jobs and Families, Patty Hajdu, invoked Section 107 of the Canadian Labour Code to force flight attendants back to work. The law allows the government to intervene in workplace disputes in the interests of the national economy, although the actual return-to-work order has to be made by the Canada Industrial Relations Board.
In the early hours of Sunday morning, the union met with the Canada Industrial Relations Board. The board directed the union to end the strike by 2 pm on Sunday and get its members back to work. The union would also have to accept binding arbitration.
Air Canada quickly announced the resumption of flights by Sunday evening, but then came whispers that the union had no intention of complying with the return-to-work order.
The union is now planning a legal challenge and has ordered its members to stand firm. Air Canada has been forced to suspend its planned resumption of flights, although the carrier now says it plans to restart operations on Monday.
Conflict Of Interest Behind The Union’s Refusal To Accept Arbitration
One of the key reasons why the flight attendant union is refusing to accept the decision of the Canada Industrial Relations Board is that the chair of the board, Maryse Tremblay, is a former Air Canada legal counsel who worked side by side with the airline’s current head of human relations.
The union asked Tremblay to recuse herself from chairing the proceedings that would decide whether flight attendants had to return to work. Tremblay refused.
Now What?
The union thinks the next step should be that Air Canada resumes bargaining in an effort to hammer out an agreement that can be put to a vote of flight attendants.
In a recent update to its members, the union has reassured flight attendants that it is not illegal to continue the strike even if the CIRB has ordered them back to work.
The union has also warned the airline that taking individual action against any of its members will only make the situation worse.
Air Canada, meanwhile, believes the union’s continued strike is illegal and is still trying to get its operations back up and running by Monday evening. Everything could change through the course of Monday, however.
This is why everyone hates unions.
The union is not the problem. The airline is. Do your homework. Air Canada treats these people terribly. In world do you not get paid for your work before and after the flight takes off? In what world is your right to strike squashed after not even 12 hours? I am a member of the public. I have no “skin in the game here,” but I’m on the union’s side all the way.
Next step disband the unions. FA’s should get paid when they are doing pre boarding etc but their compensation should be based on how they perform while up in the air. If they get complaints from customers about bad service etc they should be at risk for not getting raises or if consistently bad be fired. That’s the only way service will improve. They should be reviewed annually with higher bonuses going to those that are above average to outstanding while those with ratings at the bottom be let go.
Ah…another case of a crappy airline not taking care of the employees thus allowing the unions to dominate. If the companies realized that IF they actually CARE about the employees, pay them a good wage and benefits, there would be no need for a union to begin with. TSK TSK.