The Air Canada component of CUPE said in a statement that the company has reached out and that the parties have moved forward in their “continued attempts to reach a fair deal” to resolve a strike by flight attendants that has grounded planes for days.
The union said in an online update to members that meetings with Air Canada started Monday evening with the assistance of mediator William Kaplan in Toronto.
The union said the strike is “still on” and that the talks have “just commenced.”
The airline’s chief operating officer had said earlier in the day that flight attendants needed to return to work before the airline could push on with negotiations, while the union said it would not end its strike until a deal was reached at the bargaining table.
Brushing off the threat of fines and jail time, the defiant head of the union representing the striking flight attendants refused to order his members back to work after the strike was officially declared illegal.
In a press conference shortly after a noon deadline Monday to order his members back to work, Mark Hancock, the national president of the Canadian Union of Public Employees, said he’ll do nothing of the sort, while expressing sympathy for Canadians facing another day of hundreds of flight cancellations.
“There’s no limit. We’re going to stay strong,” said Hancock. “If it means folks like me going to jail, so be it. If it means our union being fined, so be it.”
Despite suggestions from the airline that flights would be operating soon, Hancock dismissed the idea.
“If Air Canada thinks flights will be operating this afternoon, they’re sorely mistaken,” Hancock said. Hours later, Air Canada announced it had cancelled its full schedule of 723 flights for Monday, as well as all flights up until 4 p.m. EST Tuesday.
Hancock expressed sympathy for passengers caught up in the chaos.
“We are sorry Canadians have been caught up in this. We get the frustration,” said Hancock. “There are people that have lost family members. There are medical appointments, there are vacations.”
In a written statement, the airline blasted the union’s defiance.
“Air Canada is deeply disappointed by CUPE’s decision to flout a second directive from the CIRB to return to work,” Air Canada said. “Canada is a country of laws and it should be concerning to all Canadians that CUPE’s leaders are acting with such brazen impunity and destroying the travel plans of hundreds of thousands of Canadians. ”
The ruling from the Canada Industrial Relations Board came over the weekend after CUPE said it would continue the strike despite being ordered back on the job following a request to the CIRB from federal jobs minister Patty Hajdu.
“The members of the union’s bargaining unit are directed to resume the performance of their duties immediately and to refrain from engaging in unlawful strike activities,” CIRB vice-chairperson Jennifer Webster wrote in the decision.
On X, Air Canada posted that “all Air Canada and Air Canada Rouge flights are cancelled until tomorrow afternoon.”
Air Canada’s flight attendants went on strike on Saturday but were ordered back to work after Hajdu invoked Section 107 of the Labour Code to ask the CIRB to send the two sides to binding arbitration and order an end to the job action.
Early Monday evening, Hajdu appeared to throw the union a bone, announcing an inquiry into allegations of unpaid work in the airline industry.
“Nobody should work for free in this country. … We expect to get paid for the work that we perform,” Hajdu said in a video posted on X. “We will start this probe immediately. And if employers are exploiting loopholes in the Canada Labour Code, we’ll close them.”
There’s no doubt CUPE is risking significant fines for the union, and potential jail time for its leaders, said David J. Doorey, a professor of labour law at York University’s Osgoode Hall law school.
“The most likely consequence for continued non-compliance is fines, which can be in the hundreds of thousands of dollars,” said Doorey, adding that once the CIRB order is filed with a court, it becomes a court ordering, meaning continued non-compliance could result in a contempt of court charge.
And, Doorey added, Air Canada could come after the union for costs associated with continued flight cancellations.
“In theory, Air Canada could sue CUPE for damages for lost revenues due to the … now-unlawful strike,” said Doorey.
Cancelled flights have left people feeling stranded and searching for answers.
Alberta resident, Brenda Dix, 68, on a weeklong holiday with family to Nova Scotia, said their return flight on Friday was cancelled and that her family, including a child with special needs, are now “holed up in a dingy hotel,” in Montreal with no support from Air Canada and expired $15 food vouchers.
“We are so stressed,” she said, “just from going to bed exhausted from boredom and being cooped up.”
A class-action lawsuit against Air Canada
Air Canada originally rebooked the family for a flight out of Montreal this Wednesday, but Dix said they are not confident it won’t be cancelled and are eyeing a flight home with Porter at a cost of $3,800 for the four of them.
So far, Dix said they have spent $1,000 on hotel costs — a lot of that on takeout as their hotel room only has a microwave.
Dix, a diabetic, said she has also run out of insulin and had to have her prescription sent from Ontario: “The last thing I want is a health scare from this.”
This morning Dix said she has signed on to a class-action lawsuit against Air Canada for the handling of cancelled flights.
Quebec-based lawyer Joey Zukran said his office has been fielding many calls from Air Canada customers seeking information on how to be added to the class-action lawsuit.
He said under Quebec law, people do not need to sign up to be included.
“Your guess is as good as mine,” he said when asked how many customers he believes the lawsuit would cover. “The airline now estimates 500,000 customers will be disrupted as a result,” he added, so the lawsuit would cover at least that many customers.
Defying an official back-to-work order might seem like an extreme step, but it’s the type of thing that happens when one side believes the system is stacked against them, said McMaster University labour studies professor Stephanie Ross.
“This is the natural result of the repeated use of Section 107,” said Ross. “As soon as workers have some power to actually move their employers, the government steps in.”
When a system seems to be working against them, said Ross, unions will feel less of an obligation to play by the rules.
“It’s training the labour movement to see the government will always intervene on the side of the employer. It’s corrosive of trust in the system,” said Ross, adding that other unions may follow suit. “We can expect more forms of militancy that go outside the legally prescribed forms of labour action.”
Picketers continued to march around the Terminal 1 departure doors at Toronto Pearson airport on Monday.
Chants reverberated through the sliding doors and into the airport terminal, where passengers approached Air Canada employees to ask about alternatives to their cancelled flights.
Air Canada had intended to restart flights on Sunday, but was prevented by the union’s decision to continue its strike despite the CIRB order.
Prime Minister Mark Carney says he’s disappointed Air Canada and the union representing its flight attendants weren’t able to reach a deal after eight months of negotiations.
He urged both sides to quickly resolve the situation that is causing major travel chaos for Canadian and international travellers.
With files from Star wire services
