About 10,000 Air Canada flight attendants, on strike since Saturday, defied Ottawa’s back-to-work order yesterday. “They expect me to say 'stand down',” the CUPE president told the crowd yesterday morning, before tearing up the order to loud cheers. “This ain't happening my friends! Not today, not tomorrow, not ever! This strike will only end when we get a collective agreement that works for our members!”
After initially announcing that flights would resume by Sunday evening, Air Canada backtracked. The airline said it was suspending “its plan to gradually resume operations, after CUPE illegally directed its flight attendant members not to return to work.”
Leaders of Canada’s major union federations, who met yesterday, denounced an “unconstitutional attack” and demanded the repeal of Section 107 of the Labour Code, used to impose the back-to-work order. Unions vowed a fight-back campaign with financial support, legal action, and mobilization if the government persists.
Business and government hand in hand
On August 13, the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) announced plans to strike after rejecting what it considered a disguised pay cut and the continuation of many hours of unpaid work. Air Canada immediately responded with a lockout notice.
By Saturday evening, Ottawa had referred the matter to the Canada Industrial Relations Board (CIRB), asking it to end the strike and appoint an arbitrator to impose a contract.
To justify the move, Federal Labour Minister Patty Hajdu cited “economic risks” tied to U.S. tariffs. She was backed by Matthew Holmes, head of public policy at one of the country’s top business lobby groups, the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, who called it a “good decision.”
According to Ottawa, halting passenger transport and certain “critical cargo” would carry too heavy a cost to allow the strike to continue. But Henly Larden, interim president and elected vice-president of CUPE 4094, which represents 2,400 workers at Vancouver airport, rejected the argument:
“If they’re not going to answer the call of the workers about unpaid work and poverty wages, then you know what? Air Canada has to face the music and own it.”
Low wages and unpaid hours
Like many other airline workers, flight attendants are not paid when they are on the tarmac or in the airport. On average, that amounts to 35 hours of unpaid work per week.
“The starting wage for an Air Canada Rouge flight attendant is $1,952 a month before taxes,” explained to The North Star a CUPE spokesperson, herself a former flight attendant.
“That’s below the poverty line,” she added. “The union has had to open food banks in its offices. Some attendants sleep in their cars. Others live six or seven in a two bedrooms apartment, unable to even afford a simple shared rental.”
She noted that 40 percent of flight attendants have five years’ seniority or less, and a large share of Air Canada employees earn under $30,000 a year.
These conditions clash with the company’s narrative in the media, where Air Canada claims “CUPE [is] seeking unsustainable increases” and insists that the airline is “asking for no concessions.”
A first challenge to Section 107
This is the fifth time in two years that Ottawa has used Section 107 of the Labour Code to break a major strike. But it is the first time the back-to-work order has been openly defied. The move echoes Quebec’s 1972 Common Front, which led to major improvements in working and living conditions.
Gilles Levasseur, professor of management and law at the University of Ottawa, explained to The North Star what comes next: “The CIRB could impose fines on the unions, on employees, and even on Air Canada if they don’t comply with the order.”
“So, what Air Canada is doing [this morning] is showing up before the federal court at 8:30 a.m., asking to have the CIRB decision endorsed by the court so it becomes enforceable. That could allow for seizure of union revenues to pay the fine. They could even impose jail time on leaders for defying a court order.”
But CUPE’s spokesperson says they’re ready for that. “As our president said, he has no problem with fines or even getting arrested.”
“Flight attendants are sick of poverty wages,” she added. “They want to be paid for every hour they work, no matter their seniority. Of course they want a resolution, but they don’t want conditions forced on them—they want the right to vote on a negotiated agreement. And they are very, very, very mobilized and committed.”