MONTREAL: Air Canada flight attendants remained on strike on Sunday past the deadline in a government-backed labor board’s order to return to work, causing the country’s biggest airline to delay restarting operations.
The Canadian Union of Public Employees said in a statement that members would remain on strike and invited Air Canada back to the table to “negotiate a fair deal,” calling the order to end its strike unconstitutional. The airline said it would delay plans to restart operations from Sunday until Monday evening.
On Saturday, Prime Minister Mark Carney’s Liberal government moved to end the strike by more than 10,000 flight attendants by asking the Canada Industrial Relations Board to order binding arbitration. The CIRB issued the order, which Air Canada had sought, and unionized flight attendants opposed.
The Canada Labour Code gives the government the power to ask the CIRB to impose binding arbitration in the interest of protecting the economy.
The government’s options to end the strike now include asking courts to enforce the order to return to work and seeking an expedited hearing. The minority government could also try to pass legislation that would need the support of political rivals and approval in both houses of parliament, which is on break until September 15. The government did not respond to requests for comment.
“The federal government has entrusted a board to administer these rules in the Canadian Labor Code, and if you defy them, you are transgressing and essentially violating the law,” said Rafael Gomez, a professor of employment relations at the University of Toronto.
The government, under former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, intervened last year to head off rail and dock strikes that threatened to cripple the economy, but it is unusual for a union to defy a CIRB order.
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