The B.C. government waded into the Air Canada strike prior to Tuesday’s tentative deal, siding with the flight attendants and using the chance to stick it to both an unpopular airline and the federal Liberal government’s even more unpopular handling of the issue.
Labour Minister Jennifer Whiteside took to social media on Monday to scold Ottawa’s heavy-handed tactics and Air Canada’s absurd reliance on a system that only pays flight attendants when the airplane is in the air, and doesn’t compensate them at all for the work they do checking in and loading passengers.
“If a system depends on unpaid work, then that system needs to change,” Whiteside posted on social media.
“Flight attendants have the right to strike like all workers. And they deserve basic fairness and a fair contract negotiated at the bargaining table.”
Whiteside declined an interview request.
The move by the BC NDP was an easy win-win position to take.
The government got to support organized labour allies outraged by Air Canada’s behaviour. That includes CUPE, representing the 10,000 flight attendants who walked off the job on Saturday. The B.C. arm of CUPE is a major player on the BC NDP’s provincial council.
The BC NDP government also aligned itself with much of the early public sentiment on the strike—mainly that Air Canada is an unlovable, unreliable, miserly company that not only nickels and dimes passengers on everything from bag fees to snacks, but also treats its employees poorly, too.
Plus, there’s the added bonus of the province getting to dunk on the federal Liberal government for badly bungling the issue.
Ottawa tried to order flight attendants back to work Sunday. The union called that bluff and defied the back-to-work order, accusing the government of picking sides by removing one of the only bargaining tools available to workers, which is the legal right to strike.
The federal Liberals were left in the worst position—having picked the most unpopular side in the fight and still not able to restore order over the weekend.
Meanwhile, federal Jobs Minister Patty Hajdu stretched the limits of incredulity by abruptly declaring Monday she was shocked to discover flight attendants aren’t paid for their ground work. Never mind that this has been a well-known grievance in the industry for years, and a central part of the very what’s been shouted by Air Canada workers for weeks.
“It’s unacceptable,” Hajdu said Monday in a video posted to social media. “Nobody should work for free.”
Hajdu ordered a review.
“We will start this probe immediately, and if employers are exploiting loopholes in the Canada Labour Code, we will close them.”
Cue the inevitable 18-month, million-dollar review of an issue the government has pretended not to notice for decades.
CUPE says the tentative deal will end unpaid work by flight attendants when are on the ground. Air Canada had previously offered 50 per cent wages. That cheapskate offer came from a company that recorded $418 million in profits in its last quarter, and paid its CEO more than $12 million last year.
Air Canada is the perfect corporate villain: chronically late, stingy with legroom, shameless with fees and treating its customers and employees like serfs.
For the BC NDP this was an easy win. The party got to look pro-union, dunk on Ottawa and side with the public interest against an airline everyone loves to hate. It’s risk-free solidarity. At least until the government faces its own strikes from provincial unions this fall, when it may be the one legislating angry workers back to their jobs.
Rob Shaw has spent more than 17 years covering B.C. politics, now reporting for CHEK News and writing for The Orca/BIV. He is the co-author of the national bestselling book A Matter of Confidence, host of the weekly podcast Political Capital, and a regular guest on CBC Radio.
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