The Canadian government has forced Air Canada ons at work less than 12 hours after starting to strike and ordered the binding arbitration on a dispute that left more than 100,000 travelers blocked worldwide during the tip of the summer travel season.
Since March, the largest airline in Canada and the union representing its on -board agents have been locked in an increasingly bitter dispute on what Union has described as “poverty wages” and unpaid work. On -board agents are not paid for any work before or after taking off the plane.
On Saturday, Federal Minister for Canada’s Jobs, Patty Hajdu said it was clear that the talks had reached a dead end and that the impact was felt by Canadians and visitors across the country.
“The talks have been broken down,” said Hajdu when she told journalists she had asked the Canada Industrial Relations Committee to order the strike and impose binding arbitration. “It is clear that the parties are not closer to the resolution of some of the main problems that remain and they will need help with the referee.”
She seemed to connect her actions to the toll that the increases in the American rate had taken on the Canadian economy. “In a year when Canadian families and businesses have already experienced too many disturbances and uncertainty, now is the time to add additional challenges and disturbances to their lives and our economy,” she said in a statement.
The power of Hajdu to stop the strike stems from a section of the Canada Labor Code, which gives the unilateral minister the power to end the work stoppages in order to “maintain or secure industrial peace”. While the section was rarely used by previous governments, the Liberal government invoked it several times in the past year, reducing the strikes of Canadian port workers, the post office and railway companies, which prompted analysts to express concerns that the use of the clause could undermine workers’ rights.
The union representing on -board agents decried the Liberal government for intervening in a few hours, accusing it of violating their right to take action. Air Canada would have previously asked that the government is taking place to impose binding arbitration.
Wesley Lesosky, of the Canadian Public Employee Union, said the government gave “Air Canada exactly what they want – hours and hours of unpaid work of underpaid dashboards, while the company attracts heaven’s height and extraordinary remuneration of leaders”.
After issuing a strike notice earlier this week, on -board agents stopped working in the early hours of Saturday. Above the same time, Air Canada, which operates around 700 flights per day, said it would start to lock on airports on -board agents.
According to the Cirium aviation analysis firm, the airline had canceled 671 flights by Saturday afternoon, leaving some travelers blocked abroad and others rushing to find alternatives during the busy summer trip season. According to the airline, around 130,000 customers per day could be affected by a disturbance.
Air Canada said he was planning to restart flights on Sunday evening, but that some should be canceled over the next seven days when the calendar stabilizes and returns to normal. He had previously declared that he could take up to a week to resume full operations.
The airline said earlier that it had offered its on -board agents “an increase of more than 38% on global remuneration”, but the union said that the figure had not fully explained inflation. Air Canada also said that he was willing to pay on board 50% of their work wages performed before planes take off, which led the union to answer that its members should be fully compensated for their work.
About 70% of the airline agents are women, said Natasha Stea, president of the local union and on -board agent. She wondered if they were treated fairly, since the Air Canada pilots, the vast majority of whom are men, received a significant increase last year.
“We have a broken heart for our passengers,” she told the Associated Press at the end of last week. “No one wants to see Canadians blocked or worried about their travel plans, but we cannot work for free.”
