Last month’s Air Canada flight attendants’ strike brought the country’s largest airline to a halt with picket lines set up at airports across the country.
After the federal government attempted to send the attendants, represented by Canadian Union of Public Employees’ (CUPE) Air Canada Component, back to their jobs, the workers refused, becoming the first union to resist this kind of order from the federal government, which has issued a spate of them in the past year.
The union’s refusal to back down led to new negotiations with Air Canada, and a tentative agreement was announced the following day.
Alison Braley-Rattai, a professor of labor studies at Brock University, told PressProgress the government’s pattern of sending workers back to their jobs, combined with the particularities of the flight attendants’ struggle, created a “perfect storm.”
“I think this was just an ‘enough is enough’ moment that, like many such moments, has been a long time in the making from the union’s perspective,” said Braley-Rattai.
Patty Hajdu, the minister of jobs and families, ordered flight attendants back to work using Section 107 of the Canada Labour Code, which grants the minister “additional powers” to be exercised in the pursuit of “industrial peace.” In full, it reads:Essentially, the section allows the minister to do what they feel is necessary to end or resolve labor disputes, including directing the Canada Industrial Relations Board to take action. In this case, Minister Hajdu directed the board to order flight attendants…
Auteur: Emma Arkell
