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WestJet flight attendants, represented by CUPE Local 8125, walked off the job on Sunday after talks broke down between the union and airline over wages and ground pay.DARRYL DYCK/The Canadian Press
Steven Tufts is an associate professor in the faculty of environmental and urban change at York University.
Canada’s air travel sector is facing another labour disruption as 4,400 WestJet flight attendants, represented by CUPE Local 8125, walked off the job on Sunday. In July, the union had voted 99.4 per cent in favour of strike action if negotiations fail.
The strike vote came after an important round of bargaining for the union, which is demanding “ground pay,” a new form of compensation that CUPE achieved with strike action against Air Canada last year, to pay flight attendants for work done outside of their time in the air.
WestJet claims that the current contract already had mechanisms to compensate for time that flight attendants put in because of delays, among other duties. However, CUPE is seeking to harmonize compensation practices across the sector and remove wages from competition.
While the impacts of any disruption would be significant for workers and WestJet passengers, this latest dispute is also a microcosm of the larger forces shaping the future of industrial relations in Canada. In order to get a fair collective agreement, flight attendants must maintain the power to strike. In this sector, however, the right to strike is precarious at best.
In defying the back-to-work order, CUPE took a calculated risk that paid off
Last summer, Air Canada flight attendants were ordered back to work by the government less than 12 hours into a strike. At that time, flight attendants defied the back-to-work order issued by the Jobs Minister and continued the stoppage for another two days. We can expect the government to limit the right of workers to strike this time as well. In fact, it is possible that the government may intervene before a strike even begins.
The Liberal government continues to set a tone restricting the right to strike in federally regulated sectors, something that is emerging as foundational to Prime Minister Mark Carney’s economic strategy. Ordering flight attendants back to work is about much more than getting planes in the air.
The government will use any disruption to reinforce its own pattern of limiting labour rights to signal to investors that Canada’s economy will be kept moving and open at any cost. In April, the Liberals once again floated the privatization of large airports as a way of unlocking their full asset value for investors, and raising funds for new infrastructure. Airports are already sought-after investments by large investors (including pension funds), even more so if workers in the sector can’t strike to improve wages.
The government has also initiated a consultation regarding the Canada Labour Code as it considers amendments that would further stifle strikes in federal sectors. Normalizing limitations on the right to strike is fundamental to guaranteeing that flights are on schedule, resources are shipped by rail and that ports allow imports and exports to flow unimpeded – all with contained labour costs.
Fifteen months into his tenure as Prime Minister, Carney is drawing the ire of union heads
Executives at WestJet and its owner Gerald Schwartz are aware of the political context and Carney’s economic vision. Strategically, the company could very well have refused CUPE’s demands and slowed negotiations, knowing the government will intervene, minimizing the economic cost of a strike. It could have simply taken their chances with some form of arbitration, hoping that any imposed settlement would maintain the current system of compensation.
The best that passengers could have hoped for was that WestJet was serious about reaching a settlement with CUPE that didn’t rely on government intervention to do the work for them.
The wildcard in all of this will be the response from other players. A relatively small group of workers, predominantly women, find themselves in the midst of a crucial struggle that is about much more than ground pay. If the rights of federally regulated workers are going to be protected in the future, other unions will have to keep in mind that any labour dispute is now a two-front battle with the employer and the state.
Labour leaders are already rethinking their political relationship with the “elbows-up” Prime Minister. An opening has been created for the federal NDP Leader Avi Lewis and perhaps even Pierre Poilievre’s Conservatives to respect basic workers’ rights.
There will be a political cost for Mr. Carney if he continues to limit the ability to strike – a fundamental source of workers’ power. But his recent actions show he may very well be willing to pay it.