Government forces Air Canada and flight attendants back to work and into arbitration

TORONTO -- Canada’s government forced Air Canada and its striking flight attendants back to work and into arbitration Saturday after a work stoppage stranded more than 100,000 travelers around the world during the peak summer travel season.

Federal Jobs Minister Patty Hajdu said now is not the time to take risks with the economy, noting the unprecedented tariffs the U.S. has imposed on Canada. The intervention means the 10,000 flight attendants will return to work soon.

The government’s action came less than 12 hours after workers walked off the job.

"The talks broke down. It is clear that the parties are not any closer to resolving some of the key issues that remain and they will need help with the arbitrator,” Hajdu said.

Hajdu said the full resumption of services could take days, noting it is up to the Canada Industrial Relations Board. Meanwhile, Wesley Lesosky, president of the Air Canada Component of the CUPE union, accused the government of violating the flight attendants' constitutional right to strike — and decried Hajdu for only waiting hours to intervene.

“The Liberal government is rewarding Air Canada’s refusal to negotiate fairly by giving them exactly what they wanted,” Lesosky said.

Air Canada did not immediately have additional comments when reached Saturday afternoon. But Air Canada Chief Operating Officer Mark Nasr previously said it could take up to a week to fully restart operations. It's likely that travelers will continue to see disruptions in the coming days.

The shutdown of Canada’s largest airline early Saturday is impacting about 130,000 people a day, and some 25,000 Canadians may be stranded. Air Canada operates around 700 flights per day.

According to numbers from aviation analytics provider Cirium, Air Canada had canceled a total of 671 flights by Saturday afternoon — following 199 on Friday. And another 96 flights scheduled for Sunday were already suspended.

Hajdu ordered the Canada Industrial Relations Board to extend the term of the existing collective agreement until a new one is determined by the arbitrator.

“Canadians rely on air travel every day, and its importance cannot be understated,” she said.

Union spokesman Hugh Pouliot didn’t immediately know what day workers would return to work. “We’re on the picket lines until further notice,” he said.

The bitter contract fight escalated Friday as the union turned down Air Canada’s prior request to enter into government-directed arbitration, which allows a third-party mediator to decide the terms of a new contract.

Flight attendants walked off the job around 1 a.m. EDT on Saturday. Around the same time, Air Canada said it would begin locking flight attendants out of airports.

Ian Lee, an associate professor at Carleton University’s Sprott School of Business, earlier noted the government repeatedly intervenes in transportation strikes.

“They will intervene to bring the strike to an end. Why? Because it has happened 45 times from 1950 until now,” Lee said. “It is all because of the incredible dependency of Canadians.”

Last year, the government forced the country’s two major railroads into arbitration with their labor union during a work stoppage. The union for the rail workers is suing, arguing the government is removing a union’s leverage in negotiations.

The Business Council of Canada had urged the government to impose binding arbitration in this case, too. And the Canadian Chamber of Commerce welcomed the intervention.

“With valuable cargo grounded and passengers stranded, the government made the right decision to refer the two sides to binding arbitration," said Matthew Holmes, the executive vice president for the Chamber of Commerce — adding that “close to a million Canadians and international visitors could be impacted" if it takes Air Canada a week to be fully operational again.

Hajdu maintained that her Liberal government is not anti-union, saying it is clear the two sides are at an impasse.

Passengers whose flights are impacted will be eligible to request a full refund on the airline’s website or mobile app, according to Air Canada.

The airline said it would also offer alternative travel options through other Canadian and foreign airlines when possible. Still, it warned that it could not guarantee immediate rebooking because flights on other airlines are already full “due to the summer travel peak."

Many travelers expressed frustration over Air Canada's response to the strike.

Jean‐Nicolas Reyt, 42, said he had heard little from Air Canada just hours before his upcoming flight from France scheduled for Sunday.

“What’s stressful is to not hear anything from Air Canada,” said Reyt, who is trying to return to Montreal, where he is an associate professor of organizational behavior at McGill University. He said he only received one email from the airline on Thursday warning of potential strike disruptions, but had no further information as of Saturday evening in Cannes, where he was visiting family.

Reyt assumes his upcoming flight could be canceled — much like the scores of other lengthy disruptions this weekend. “I’m just very surprised that Air Canada let it go this far,” he said. “It’s really a bit disheartening that they fly you somewhere abroad and then they just don’t fly you back.”

Jennifer MacDonald, of Halifax, Nova Scotia, expressed similar frustration. She has been trying to help her brother and cousin get home to Edmonton, Alberta since the second leg of their Air Canada trip was canceled during what was supposed to be a 1-hour layover in Montreal on Friday night.

The two had to pay $300 out of their own pocket for a hotel, MacDonald said. All Saturday morning, they tried to look for rebooking options, but everything was sold out, she added. Eventually, they opted to book a new flight for Aug. 22 out of Halifax, with another family member volunteering to make an eight-hour drive to pick them up in Montreal and bring them back east on Saturday.

“It will be a multiday ordeal and a multi thousand dollar trip,” MacDonald said. But as stressful as the disruptions have been, she added that her family stands in solidarity with the flight attendants. “We hope that Air Canada lifts the lockout and negotiates fairly.”

Following the news of the Canadian government forcing arbitration on Saturday, Reyt also expressed concern for Air Canada’s flight attendants. “I think the flight attendants are making some reasonable arguments,” he said, adding that he hopes the intervention isn't "a way just to silence them.”

Air Canada and the Canadian Union of Public Employees have been in contract talks for about eight months, but they have yet to reach a tentative deal.

Both sides say they remain far apart on the issue of pay and the unpaid work flight attendants do when planes aren’t in the air.

“We are heartbroken for our passengers. Nobody wants to see Canadians stranded or anxious about their travel plans but we cannot work for free," Natasha Stea, an Air Canada flight attendant and local union president, said before the government intervention was announced.

The attendants are about 70% women. Stea said Air Canada pilots, who are male dominated, received a significant raise last year and questioned whether they are getting fair treatment.

The airline’s latest offer included a 38% increase in total compensation, including benefits and pensions over four years, that it said “would have made our flight attendants the best compensated in Canada.”

But the union pushed back, saying the proposed 8% raise in the first year didn’t go far enough because of inflation. ___

Grantham-Philips reported from New York. Airlines reporter Rio Yamat contributed to this report from Las Vegas.