Mark Hancock | CUPE’s National President
We’ve all heard the story of David and Goliath. In August, flight attendants represented by CUPE took on Goliath not once, but twice.
After their last 10-year contract expired, over 10,500 flight attendants at Air Canada were looking to do two things in this round of bargaining: get a wage increase to catch up with inflation, and end unpaid work.
Air Canada refused to do either.
Instead of telling Air Canada to smarten up and bargain fairly, Mark Carney’s Liberal government backed the company against their workers – 70% of whom are women, and many of whom earn less than $30,000 a year.
But our members did not back down. They delivered a 99.7% strike mandate, and they went on strike to stand up for themselves and for each other.
Within hours, the Carney government came to Air Canada’s rescue, using Section 107 of the Canada Labour Code to end the strike and refer the negotiations to binding arbitration.
But still, our members did not back down.
Air Canada tried to have our strike declared illegal, and the government backed them again – but the labour movement and Canadians as a whole came out in droves to support us and our fight for what’s right.
The next day, our members showed up on picket lines across Canada in even stronger numbers.
When it was abundantly clear to both Air Canada and the Carney government that our members were not going to fall for their intimidation tactics, and that the dispute was only going to end through negotiation, the company came back to the table.
Our members earned a much stronger deal than the one on offer before we went on strike, proving that meaningful progress is truly made at the bargaining table.
But they also proved something else: that repeated government interference in negotiations to tip the scales on behalf of employers and major corporations has made labour peace impossible in this country – and it has to end.
This was the eighth time in two years the Liberal government has used Section 107 to trample workers’ rights and bail out the executive boardroom. Employers have become pretty comfortable with sabotaging negotiations, and ragging the puck until the federal government bails them out. Air Canada’s CEO even admitted on live television that the company had always planned on federal intervention to solve negotiations in their favour.
Not anymore. We aren’t Canada’s largest and strongest union for nothing, and we sent a clear message to this government and every employer in this country. The days of governments playing favourites and doing the dirty work of corporate monopolies for them are over.
There is more work to be done to end unpaid work in the airline sector and to finally repeal Section 107 from the Code.
But for now, let’s celebrate how Air Canada flight attendants took on Goliath on two fronts – and won on both. They responded to threats and intimidation from one of the biggest companies in the country and from our own government the best way we know how: with courage and resolve.
