Prime Minister Stephen Harper defended his government’s tough-love approach to Air Canada’s labour dispute, saying intervention was warranted because a strike could have hurt the country’s economy.
“I can only say that during this period, firstly of the global economic crisis, and now of the global recovery, it’s essential that we don’t have big problems and big crises in the Canadian economy that can impede the recovery,” said Harper, speaking in French at a press conference Friday to announce a tunnel to Toronto’s Billy Bishop airport.
Last week, Statistics Canada revealed the Canadian economy grew by 2.5 per cent in 2011, down from 3.2 per cent the previous year.
On Thursday, Labour Minister Lisa Raitt asked the Canada Industrial Relations Board to look into Air Canada’s disputes with two of its unions, which means there can be neither a strike nor a lockout until the CIRB probe is finished.
It wouldn’t take long before a work stoppage at the country’s largest airline rippled into the broader economy, Harper argued Friday.
“We’re concerned a lot by this possibility and the effect of a strike at Air Canada on the transportation system in general, and the Canadian economy,” said Harper, who suggested the government has the country on its side.
“I’m certain that we have the support of the majority of the Canadian population,” said Harper.
Meanwhile Friday, officials at Air Canada’s biggest union lashed out at a suggestion they had cooperated with the airline and asked Raitt to intervene. The suggestion, made by prominent labour relations lawyer Howard Levitt in a television interview, was denied point blank by IAMAW vice president Dave Ritchie.
“You can’t vote on something that doesn’t exist,” said Ritchie. “We brought a tentative agreement to our membership and they flatly rejected it, end of story. Talks with Air Canada broke off Tuesday afternoon and we have not met since.
“There is no secret deal with Air Canada, we did not ask the minister to intervene, and to suggest that we did is nothing short of an outright lie,” Ritchie alleged.
In an interview with the Star, Levitt said he had no direct evidence of a deal between Air Canada and the IAMAW to encourage Raitt’s intervention. Still, said Levitt, there’s ample precedent for a union’s leadership doing whatever it can to get a deal done, even if it’s been rejected.
“If they felt that the deal on the table was the best they were going to get, but it got rejected, and that the alternative was going to be a long strike or lockout and they’d get annihilated, they might feel that using Machiavellian tactics to go above their members’ heads may have actually been in their members’ best interests. It happens all the time in negotiations,” said Levitt.
Original Article
Source: Star
Author: Josh Rubin
“I can only say that during this period, firstly of the global economic crisis, and now of the global recovery, it’s essential that we don’t have big problems and big crises in the Canadian economy that can impede the recovery,” said Harper, speaking in French at a press conference Friday to announce a tunnel to Toronto’s Billy Bishop airport.
Last week, Statistics Canada revealed the Canadian economy grew by 2.5 per cent in 2011, down from 3.2 per cent the previous year.
On Thursday, Labour Minister Lisa Raitt asked the Canada Industrial Relations Board to look into Air Canada’s disputes with two of its unions, which means there can be neither a strike nor a lockout until the CIRB probe is finished.
It wouldn’t take long before a work stoppage at the country’s largest airline rippled into the broader economy, Harper argued Friday.
“We’re concerned a lot by this possibility and the effect of a strike at Air Canada on the transportation system in general, and the Canadian economy,” said Harper, who suggested the government has the country on its side.
“I’m certain that we have the support of the majority of the Canadian population,” said Harper.
Meanwhile Friday, officials at Air Canada’s biggest union lashed out at a suggestion they had cooperated with the airline and asked Raitt to intervene. The suggestion, made by prominent labour relations lawyer Howard Levitt in a television interview, was denied point blank by IAMAW vice president Dave Ritchie.
“You can’t vote on something that doesn’t exist,” said Ritchie. “We brought a tentative agreement to our membership and they flatly rejected it, end of story. Talks with Air Canada broke off Tuesday afternoon and we have not met since.
“There is no secret deal with Air Canada, we did not ask the minister to intervene, and to suggest that we did is nothing short of an outright lie,” Ritchie alleged.
In an interview with the Star, Levitt said he had no direct evidence of a deal between Air Canada and the IAMAW to encourage Raitt’s intervention. Still, said Levitt, there’s ample precedent for a union’s leadership doing whatever it can to get a deal done, even if it’s been rejected.
“If they felt that the deal on the table was the best they were going to get, but it got rejected, and that the alternative was going to be a long strike or lockout and they’d get annihilated, they might feel that using Machiavellian tactics to go above their members’ heads may have actually been in their members’ best interests. It happens all the time in negotiations,” said Levitt.
Original Article
Source: Star
Author: Josh Rubin
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