Air Canada flight attendants said on Sunday they will remain on strike and challenge a return-to-work order they called unconstitutional, defying a government decision to force them back to their duties by 2 p.m. ET (1800 GMT).
Air Canada had said it planned to resume flights on Sunday evening, a day after the Canadian government issued a directive to end a cabin crew strike that caused the suspension of around 700 daily flights, stranding more than 100,000 passengers.
The Canadian Union of Public Employees said in a statement that members would remain on strike and invited Air Canada back to the table to “negotiate a fair deal.”
If the government declares a strike illegal, or tries to in any way compel the employees to return to work, they are explicitly telling the workers that they are nothing more than indentured servants, barely more than slaves. You exist to make these people money, now sit down and shut up before we throw you in prison for upsetting your betters.
I don’t understand how a government can tell workers to go back to work. Like, if Air Canada is unhappy with their employees, they should fire them and rehire. And spend all the time and money it requires to retrain them. Oh wait, that’s not feasible across the whole industry? Guess you better pay these talented professionals what they are worth, then.
Like, how can workers refusing to work possibly be illegal? It’s insane. Even if the argument is that not working went against some kind of work contract they have, that should be a civil issue not a legal one.
Look at what Reagan did to the Air Traffic Controllers union to see what an unscrupulous conservative could do to striking workers if they wanted to. Though I’m sure Canada is different so hopefully it’s not possible there.
The US is still feeling the consequences of that.
Reagan at least realized he fucked up and was forced to rehire a bunch of the controllers. It’s also different since controllers are federal government employees who were not legally allowed to strike in the first place.
Back to work legislation ostensibly exists for situations where a strike compromises public safety or well-being. Healthcare workers or power plant operators or what have you.
You could argue that even this is too far and the employers involved should be the ones on the hook to do whatever is necessary to get things running, but the ad absurdum argument there is that it would effectively mean those employees have infinite bargaining power.
It definitely gets misapplied though, and this is certainly one such case.