After days of cancellations, Air Canada told its passengers that flights would be back in the air by Sunday. Their flight attendants had other plans.
What happened: In an extremely rare move, Air Canada’s ~10,000 flight attendants are refusing to comply with a federal back-to-work order, vowing to continue their strike even after the government ordered them to return to work by Sunday afternoon.
- The union representing the flight attendants says the order, which was handed down on Saturday, violates their Charter rights and plans to challenge the ruling in court.
- The last time something like this happened was in 1978, when Canadian postal workers defied back-to-work legislation. The union's leader was jailed for the move.
Why it matters: Even before the strike officially began on Saturday, 623 flights were cancelled and over 100,000 travellers were caught in the crosshairs. For every day that this standoff goes on, an estimated 130,000 passengers will be affected.
Big picture: Intervening to end strikes has become something of a habit for Ottawa these days, including at major ports, Canada Post, and Canadian railways. Unions argue that this pattern is weakening workers’ bargaining power by encouraging employers to stall until Ottawa pulls the plug.
Bottom line: While intervention can alleviate the economic toll of strikes in the short term, federal mediators have long warned that it disincentivizes both workers and employers to compromise in their negotiations until the feds inevitably step in.—LA