The federal government of Canada thought the Air Canada flight attendants’ strike was over on the afternoon of Aug. 17, when it ordered 10,000 striking flight attendants and cabin crew members back to work. The Canadian government and its corporate backers thought wrong.
The Canadian Union of Public Employees had announced the strike earlier the same day, which saw all 10,000 members working at Air Canada strike for the first time since 1985. On Sunday afternoon, the Union announced that it would defy the government’s back-to-work order. This is a powerful and courageous stand by the airline workers against the unhinged greed of billionaire corporations like Air Canada.
The workers and the union clearly feel that they are still in a position of strength. Beyond the scientific fact that no industry can run without workers, the Canadian Constitution actually guarantees the right to strike. However, the Canadian government often uses legal technicalities to circumvent this constitutional right and repress strikes.
Under Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, the government ordered striking rail and dock workers back to work. In those cases, the unions complied. Under these back-to-work orders, unions and management must submit to binding arbitration. This effectively takes the workers’ conditions out of their hands and into the hands of a private contractor that’s promised to protect corporate interests before all else.
Binding arbitration has been Air Canada management’s desire since the parties reached an impasse. And that is precisely what the Canadian government wanted to give Air Canada. A core reason the Union of Public Employees called this strike was because binding arbitration requires a permanent waiving of the right to strike.
The crucial issue is Air Canada’s refusal to pay flight attendants for time spent on the ground in between flights and for time spent helping passengers board the flight. Air Canada, with its CAD 30.2 billion (about USD 21.97 billion) in assets, has insisted that paying the attendants for this work would absolutely bankrupt the company – a ludicrous accusation.
Air Canada rakes in hundreds of millions in profit per quarter. This isn’t about whether or not Air Canada would survive salary increases. They would. This is about wealthy billionaires and investment banks insisting on maximized profits at all costs.
The Canadian government is often lauded for its social programs in health care and education. While these programs are progressive, it is important to recognize that they were won through struggle. These programs were not created out of generosity but as concessions to the working class and Indigenous movements in Canada. The Canadian government itself, as it again proved with its response to this strike, is completely subject to corporations and Canada’s five major banks.
It is crucial that all progressive forces, really all working-class people broadly, stand in solidarity with the striking Air Canada flight attendants. The last time a Canadian union refused to comply with a back-to-work order was 1978. The Canadian Parliament eventually held the Postal Workers Union in contempt, fining them severely and jailing the union’s president.
If the airline workers are going to avoid that fate, the people of Canada must be mobilized to support the strike. The government and Air Canada have already begun a media campaign to place the blame for canceled flights on the workers and their union.
This lie has to be refuted wherever and whenever possible.
Flight attendants are essential to airline operations and passenger safety. Airlines cannot legally or safely operate without their flight attendants, who serve as the primary safety professionals responsible for passenger protection, emergency response, and regulatory compliance on every flight.
Airlines can operate entirely without parasitic billionaire stockholders and banks that insist on low wages and long hours.
So no matter what the Canadian government, Air Canada, or the Canadian banks throw at the flight attendants, we should all stand with them. Because ultimately, these showdowns between labor and capital – like the one between Air Canada and its flight attendants – always have larger class repercussions. A victory for the flight attendants would be a victory for the entire working class.
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