RickyWars1Federal labour board deems Air Canada flight attendants' strike 'unlawful'
What's unlawful is not paying your employees for the time they've worked.
What's unlawful is removing their right to go on strike and removing any kind of leverage for them to negotiate.
cygnusIt would be nice if the article explained why the tribunal declared the strike unlawful. What was the rationale?
They hurt the economy’s feewings 😔. But in all seriousness they deemed the strike to have too large of an impact on Canadians and the Canadian economy, making them and go back to work. But since the original order was defied now the strike is illegal.
PyrThe fuck are they going to do? Arrest all the striking workers? That will sure get them back to work faster.
The organizers and high level employees can be arrested, and the union can be dismantled under court order. This also means the workers lose any strike rights, like job protection. However, there are nowhere near enough qualified cabin crewmembers laying around in reserve to make any difference. As long as the workers hold firm, AirCanada is in for a bad time.
If that were to happen I hope other unions would strike in solidarity. Removing collective bargaining rights from one group removes it from everyone.
CircaVOh yeah they’re geared up for that. Source- Am in CUPE but not the same local as the flight attendants.
PenguinCoderthe union can be dismantled under court order.
So the government can declare your legal option to collective bargaining as illegal when it doesn’t suit them. So then, what is the point of the union and legal protections when they can remove it at a whim…
This is fucked. Yes, I know US did it before too. Same question and reasoning. If the government only allows you to do something, when it doesn’t harm their pockets… it’s a useless, feel good ‘right’ or protection.
Which is why the strike is still on and flights are cancelled. I’m actually directly impacted by this, I am currently stuck in Tokyo since my flight to Tornto was cancelled a few hours ago.
I just want to say thank you for not letting the personal impact change your position. Too many people will drop a good cause because of a slight inconvenience. Strikes and protests have to inconvenience people, because it’s the only leverage they have.
I hope you get home safe, and on a plane where everyone is well paid for their work.
Meh, AirCanada rebooked me today, I don’t have to be anywhere urgently so I am barely impacted. I’m more annoyed I went from a direct flight to a layover.
Exactly. You can’t just hire a bunch of scab flight attendants. Fuck Air Canada.
Note that the workers are not breaking the law for striking, the Union leadership is for calling the strike.
But it is very refreshing these last couple years to see our labour organizers have a spine and are willing to take risks for their membership. They are fighting for the rights of all Canadian workers, through action over merely nice words.
Thanks - if that was the rationale, then AC should be nationalized. No private company should be allowed to become so essential to the functioning of our country.
Especially if they show such negligence where they are willing to cause such economic disruption to avoid paying workers fairly.
This whole charade where Air Canada is a “private company” definitely needs to come to an end. I totally agree, if it quacks likes a duck, and has a hotline to the government who will premeditatedly act in its favour, or bail out at the first hint of trouble, whelp that’s sounding like a government protected company to me too.
Especially if that’s access the other airlines don’t have. Westjet has been on strike before and I don’t remember the feds stepping in.
Companies in Canada have learned that they can just wait until the union strikes and then run to the government to force them back to work on the companies terms, and the unions will get on their knees and stsrt sucking. Why would companies negotiate anything if all you have to do is get the government to force them back to work.
Air Canada is NOT a crown Corp, what right does the government to intervene in Union’s lawful right to strike. This undermines worker protection in Canada and sets a horrible precedent.
Welcome to the control state friend. No wonder everyone thinks of Canada as the US’ little sibling.
Kill your oppressive overlords and their corporate masters.
Maple EngineerIt’s unlawful until the Supreme Court strikes down that section of the law because it’s obviously unconstitutional because it takes away their Section 2 right to collective bargaining.
Nah, absolutely fuck the government. Keep striking. Cause pure chaos and unrest.
All the comments make it seem like this is a new thing to all of you? There’s been many strikes where in identical situations workers have been sent back and both sides are forced into binding arbitration. Generally the government, whether it be federal or provincial, wait a lot longer to do that order, but let’s be realistic this is grossly disruptive beyond Air Canada so there is some rationale. To be clear, I’m not saying I’m for it, but this isn’t new. It is worth noting that when this does occur the arbitrators tend to lean more towards those who were forced back.
I’d be interested in seeing some of those cases that
a) Aren’t using this loophole the libs decided to make that has yet to be fought in a court of law (ie did not require the passing of legislation to force them back)
b) Aren’t for a service deemed ‘critical’ like teachers, nurses, etc. (ie ones that dont have an ESA)
The Canadian and Provincial governments have done this over 25 times in the last 30 years. Yes, many are “essential” workers like health care, but it’s also included port workers, rail workers, transit workers, elementary through post-secondary teachers, construction workers, ferry operators, etc…
You may not consider Air Canada to be essential and the government should mind it’s own business, AC is the only passenger service for many people in small communities who use it for accessing a variety of essential services that are not available in their community. The flight attendants should be paid more, should be paid for hours at work and while they are at whether they are flying or not, but it’s also not a pure black and white scenario that people love to paint it as.
Lol really? So no, no examples.
Federally, there’s only been 7 examples in your timeline - lop.parl.ca/sites/ParlInfo/default/…/backToWork
I’ll do some digging then. Going to the wikipedia page for Canadian labour movements, and starting from current day:
Canada post union used the same loophole as here and is currently being challenged in court.
Federal workers strike was not legislated back.
Kimikat Foundry was properly legislated back, BUT was only required at 25% capacity. To me, a reasonable compromise, as the foundry would still be losing tons of money at 25% but not be shuttered.
2018 CUPW strike was sent back with the same loophole as here.
2012 Halifax Transit Strike actually had the PM say this: “Nova Scotia Premier Darrell Dexter won’t discuss the possibility of back-to-work legislation.
“Any discussion of this on either side actually upsets the balance that is there between the city and their workers. They have a situation that they need to deal with and I encourage them both to deal with it,” he said.”
2008 TTC was legislated back under Dalton McGuinty.
2004 PSAC strike was legislated back
1997 teachers strike in Ontario the government attempted to get an injunction against the strike, and the judge refused on the grounds it would violate their charter right to strike.
Feel free to add any others that I missed, but this is hardly “life as normal” and should definitely be challenged and fought
The use of Section 107 like a magic wand to make strikes disappear is a novel move by government from the last couple years. Previously it’s been back-to-work legislation to end strikes, taking longer and requiring public support from the peoples’ representatives in Legislature.
This magic wand has been more or less successful the first few times to get strikes out of the news, but this is the first time a union has refused to follow along with this.
Importantly, the pacing and the documented pattern of employers stonewalling discussion while begging government for arbitration, has put a clear case for unions to challenge this erosion of a constitutional right affirmed by Canada’s Supreme Court and regional trial courts. (sidenote: our courts aren’t bought out by regressives)
And yet they persisted.
Air Canada is non essential. Rail, and postal service, health care teachers are. No other option is available. Customers have other options available in most cases and Air Canada has been struggling for a while with public perception and this is bad optics. My home town is only serviced by Air Canada but because they have contacted out the route to Jazz, I’m not affected. But I still have options for an airport an hour away though.
Jazz is AirCanada but their work force are not on the same union
Rail, and postal service, health care teachers are [essential].
It’s amazing how badly all those are being managed, right now. Mailposte wants to go private so they can end some bad contracts, rail is largely sold off to greedy corps, and teachers have gotten the shit end of the stick for decades.
For instance, my sister-in-law is retiring soon from teaching. She left the country to find a job that pays a living wage. Why yes, it IS a former Viking nation, and how did you know?
Oh well. 🤷Air Canada can suck a bag of dicks given they expect free work for no pay.