Air Canada might be hoping for government intervention to limit damage from a potential pilot strike, but they could be out of luck, industry and labour experts say.
With a strike looming as soon as 12:01 a.m. next Wednesday, the country’s biggest airline and the Air Line Pilots Association are still at the bargaining table, but the company has already joined a growing business chorus saying it wants federal labour minister Steven MacKinnon to step in.
“If a negotiated settlement is not reached and a work stoppage is unavoidable. … Air Canada would look to the government to intervene, as it has in recent labour disputes, before Canadian travellers and other stakeholders experience such a disruption,” Air Canada spokesperson Peter Fitzpatrick said in an email Thursday afternoon.
Fitzpatrick said the airline has been negotiating “in good faith” for 15 months.
Earlier, a coalition of business groups including the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters, as well as the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, called on MacKinnon to act pre-emptively and refer the dispute to binding arbitration.
“The potential for a labour disruption is alarming, given the wide-reaching implications it would have on Canadians, the nation’s economy, supply chains, and our global reputation,” said the letter, which said a potential work stoppage would hurt Canada’s reputation as a reliable trade partner.
Last month, MacKinnon asked the Canada Industrial Relations Board to order binding arbitration to settle a strike by rail workers at CPKC and CN. The CIRB agreed, sparking heavy criticism from unions across the country, and a legal challenge by the rail workers.
In a written statement, MacKinnon’s office urged both sides to come to a negotiated settlement, but didn’t rule out use of section 107 of the Canada Labour Code, which he employed in the rail dispute.
“It is incumbent on both parties to work together to reach an agreement. … Our government firmly believes in the collective bargaining process and Canadians are counting on the parties to get a deal,” MacKinnon’s office said.
In Ottawa, Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre also urged Air Canada to settle with its pilots.
“I would call on Air Canada to negotiate in good faith with the pilots. We’re not going to support pre-empting those negotiations,” said Poilievre. “We stand with the pilots and their right to fight for a fair deal with good wages.”
Companies in federally-regulated industries — particularly transportation — have gotten used to speedy government intervention, but it might be harder to get in this case, industry and labour experts argued.
“The minister would be on pretty shaky ground arguing that this is a national emergency or economic disaster. It is going to be an inconvenience for the passengers. But that’s all it is — an inconvenience,” said John Gradek, a former Air Canada executive and head of McGill University’s Global Aviation Leadership Program.
Given that the vast majority of cargo in this country is carried by rail, the economic damage from a lengthy rail strike would have been far greater than one by pilots at a single airline, Gradek said.
“With rail, that was true — it is a national crisis. But with this, it’s not a national crisis or emergency. This is a competitive situation. For things which need to be shipped by air, there are other cargo carriers,” Gradek said.
The CIRB also might be getting tired of being treated as a primary option rather than a backstop, said Rafael Gomez, director of the University of Toronto’s Centre for Industrial Relations and Human Resources.
“Ultimately, it’s the CIRB which has to agree,” said Gomez. “And their legitimacy is at stake.”
If the CIRB rubber-stamps government requests, they risk losing credibility as a neutral third party, Gomez said.
“If they lose their legitimacy, then we go back to the ‘70s, when there were wildcat strikes,” said Gomez. “These federally-regulated companies have gotten so used to intervention that there’s what we call a chilling effect. It’s an industry where they seemingly have the right to strike but in practice don’t.”
And, argued Gomez, overreliance on arbitration is less efficient than a negotiated settlement, and doesn’t necessarily result in better deals for either side.
“I think there’s a real hard spot for the CIRB and the arbitration system when they’re being asked to do the heavy lifting that normal bargaining does. If you leave too many items on the table, that’s not good for arbitration.”
With files from Tonda MacCharles
