TORONTO — Air Canada says its flight attendants need to return to work before the airline can push on with negotiations, even as the union says it won’t end its now unlawful strike until a deal is reached at the bargaining table.
“We’re available and ready to work on an industry leading deal for our flight attendants, making them the best compensated in Canada, but we can’t do that while the planes are grounded,” said Air Canada chief operating officer Mark Nasr in an interview Monday evening.
Air Canada earlier Monday extended a cancellation of all Air Canada and Air Canada Rouge flights through 4 p.m. ET on Tuesday.
Nasr said the Canadian Union of Public Employees needs to direct flight attendants back to work because the Canada Industrial Relations Board has ruled the strike unlawful.
Earlier Monday, CUPE national president Mark Hancock said union leaders were all-in on pushing for a negotiated deal.
“If it means folks like me going to jail, then so be it. If it means our union being fined, then so be it. We’re looking for a solution here, our members want a solution here. But that solution has to be found at a bargaining table.”
The rising stakes of the impasse have left hundreds of thousands of travellers in limbo as timelines for a restart keep shifting.
Flight attendants were first ordered by the Canada Industrial Relations Board to return to work Sunday, after the federal government used Section 107 of the Labour Code to force the two sides into binding arbitration.
Union officials defied that order, leading the board to conclude Monday morning that the strike was unlawful, as it ordered the union to stand down and publicly tell its members to do the same by noon ET Monday, which the union also didn’t do.
CUPE and other labour leaders have cried foul over the federal government’s repeated use of Section 107 of the labour code to cut off workers’ right to strike and force them into arbitration, as the government has already done in recent years with workers at ports, railways and elsewhere.
“They can bandy about whatever terms they wish but the plain truth is that this order is unfair. It is corporate protection,” said the CUPE bargaining committee in a message to members, assuring members they will be supported in their continued strike.
The industrial relations board held back on directly referring its ruling to Federal Court, which gives union members a little more time before facing potential fines or jail time, said Michael Lynk, a labour expert and associate professor at Western University’s Faculty of Law.
Nasr said the board has spoken very clearly and that the airline will take appropriate next steps, but declined to confirm whether it would be pushing to advance the order through the court.
Lynk said there’s rising concern about the federal government’s “promiscuous” use of Section 107, which skips over the debate and voting needed for back-to-work legislation, and also creates expectations among companies that the government will step in.
“It creates, if you like, a narcotic,” said Lynk. “The company realizes it doesn’t have to obey the deadline or the threat of a strike because they know the federal government, or they’ll bet the federal government, will move in.”
Nasr said the airline has not relied on the measure, as demonstrated by the airline’s ability to reach a deal with airline pilots last year in time to avert a strike.
The federal government hasn’t made clear how it will next respond to the flight attendants’ unlawful strike, but Jobs Minister Patty Hajdu said the federal government is launching a probe into allegations of unpaid work in the airline sector — one of the key issues at the centre of the dispute — to close any loopholes that may exist.
Nasr said the airline’s offer on the table can fully address the union’s concerns.
“We tremendously value all of our flight attendants. We need to deliver them industry leading compensation. We need to eliminate unpaid work,” he said. “But we can’t do that while our planes are grounded and customers are stranded all around the world.”
Air Canada estimated Monday that some 500,000 customers’ flights have been cancelled since the strike began.
Hancock said the union was aware of the scale of the disruption for travellers, but it has to push on for workers and their rights and the union is glad to have the backing of the rest of the labour movement.
“We are here today because we are standing up for the rights of our members, and for the rights of Canadians under our Constitution,” he said.
“We’re very assured that the rest of the labour movement will be supporting us through thick and thin.”
Companies in this story: (TSX:AC)
— With files from Craig Lord in Ottawa.
Ian Bickis, The Canadian Press
