Raitt intervenes to block Air Canada strike

Labour Minister Lisa Raitt has blocked a threatened strike by Air Canada’s 6,800 flight attendants indefinitely, by sending a question about the dispute to the Canada Industrial Relations Board for review.

This procedural move essentially prevents any strike or lockout pending a board decision on the question around the maintenance of activities and what essential services are affected.

“Referrals they are not an everyday occurrence. They do occur,” said Ginette Brazeau, executive director and senior registrar of the Canada Industrial Relations Board, adding it can require written submissions from the parties or an actual hearing.

This question, permitted under Canada Labour Code, focuses on what services, if any, are “necessary to prevent an immediate and serious danger to the safety or the health of the public,” Brazeau said.

The last time it was used was last November in the West Coast port dispute, and a decision was issued in January. It has also been used in the case of ferry service and CN Rail.

This latest move comes after the Canadian Union of Public Employees announced Sunday that its members had rejected a second tentative deal, reached just hours before another strike deadline in September, and set a new strike deadline of 12:01 a.m. Thursday.

It was the second time that flight attendants had failed to ratify a contract that was recommended by their union executives.

Airline officials have been expressing concerns that the leadership has misjudged the membership, adding CUPE said the last deal met 80 per cent of their members’ demands. That made it unlikely that the parties would return to the bargaining table.

Air Canada spokesman Peter Fitzpatrick said the results “suggest a fundamental disconnect between CUPE and its members that compromises the traditional collective bargaining process.”

York University business Fred Lazar says the rejection shows flights attendants, who made serious concessions during the lean years when the airline was on the brink of bankruptcy, have long memories.

“They’re saying ‘We’re drawing a line in the sand,” he said.

Raitt has repeatedly threatened to bring in back-to-work legislation, citing a fragile Canadian economy, but Parliament is not sitting this week due to the Thanksgiving break.

It is unclear how long it would have taken to get back-to-work legislation approved. When the Conservatives legislated locked-out Canada Post employees back to work in June, the New Democrats held a 58-hour filibuster to delay passage.

Charlotte Yates, dean of social science and labour studies professor at McMaster University, believes the latest rejection by flight attendants is caused in part by Raitt’s comments that the government was readying back-to-work legislation.

“I suspect they changed the dynamics,” Yates said. “People get pissed off when they think their right to strike is taken away before they have even exercised it.”

Yates added, “I think they (the Tories) have unwittingly played into this situation.”

Unlike a June walkout by customer-service agents which resulted in little disruptions, a strike by flight attendants would ground some planes.

In September, when it looked like they were going to strike, the airline cancelled some flights by Air Canada Express, operated by the Jazz division, to free up aircraft as part of its contingency plans. It would also operate a partial schedule, using code-share flights with partner airlines.

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Source: Toronto Star