Saturday August 16, 2025 | OTTAWA, ON [Reporting from VICTORIA, BC] [Posted at 10:20 am PT – Updated 8:48 pm]
News analysis by Mary P Brooke | Island Social Trends
With her determination that the two sides were too far apart, Jobs and Families Minister Patty Hajdu has ordered Air Canada flight attendants back to work.
That was done using Section 107 of the Canadian Labour Code, after she heard from mediators last night that the two sides — employer and employees — are too far apart to see things resolved in any reasonable time frame.
The order is with the broader reason to “secure industrial peace” and secure the economy.
The strike has already been having an immediate impact on Canadians – most specifically travellers but also the broaader economy.
The shipping of essential cargo, such as pharmaceuticals and organs for surgical care, was being interrupted. Those impacts are real and immediate.
Binding arbitration will now take place as the mechanism to get flight attendants back to work.
This comes within a broader scenario of an trade war with the United States and the enduring Canada Post labour dispute, Hajdu pointed out as labour minister. She feels that Canadians wouldn’t be able to handled more disruption.
That underscores the Island Social Trends editorial stance that the corporate/worker labour model is broken. The economy is far too complex to see the two worlds of corporate profit vs having a job to be the baseline for keeping the economy afloat.
The overall cost of living, home ownership, and other aspects of modern life are clearly so far out of whack that a methodical, manageable or predictable life is almost beyond possible for many households and individuals in this country.
Over the previous few days, Air Canada had been cancelling flights in preparation for the full strike of flight attendant workers. A full stoppage of flights was scheduled for this morning August 16 at 1 am ET.
It’s debatable whether Hajdu could have determined the scope of this labour strike before Air Canada cancelled all their flights. At what point government steps in to not just resolve specific disputes but it’s yet to be seen as to when government will seek to revise the economic system by which people make a living and society is served more broadly.
CUPE:
Today in social media, CUPE National posted this comment following the forcing of unionized flight attendants back to work:
“In an almost unthinkable display of conflict-of-interest, a former Air Canada legal counsel, Maryse Tremblay, will rule on whether to end job action by striking Air Canada flight attendants at the Canada Industrial Relations Board.”
Conservatives objection:
Today the Conservative Shadow Minister for Labour, Kyle Seeback, issued a statement about the Liberals having “forced flight attendants back to work without a contract”, saying that the prime minister is “no friend to workers or labour”.
The Conservatives C-409 – An Act to amend the Canada Labour Code– (hours of work of flight attendants) aka Flight Attendants Fairness Act, that was tabled in the first session of the 44th parliament, on November 22, 2021. First reading in the House of Commons was on June 19, 2024. It’s a private member’s bill with the current status of “outside the order of precedence”. The bill outlined many of the concerns about pay for work done by flight attendants in non-flight time both before and after a flight.
NDP:
The NDP has not yet posted a full statement about the Air Canada flight attendants being forced back to work “without a deal”. A post in social media laid blame on the Liberals.
BCGEU:
Of course this brazen gesture is the message itself – the ability to proceed without a fig leaf of adhering to basic conflict of interest principles is a flex, designed to intimidate the union’s members and impress upon them the arbitrary power being commanded,” posted Paul Finch, President, BC General Employees Union (BCGEU) today in social media.
===== RELATED:
Air Canada continues pre-strike wind-down (August 15, 2025)
NEWS SECTIONS: BUSINESS & ECONOMY | TRAVEL & TRANSPORTATION