Fines and jail: what Air Canada flight attendant are risking by defying the government’s order to go back to work.
In the U.S. it has more or less been government policy for years that airline workers cannot strike. The law gives discretion to the executive branch – first the National Mediation Board (generally majority-appointed by the sitting President) has to sign off on a strike, and then the President can put off the strike. Even under the Biden administration – generally considered the most labor-friendly in a generation – strikes were not permitted. Canada’s setup is similar.
- Air Canada flight attendants voted overwhelmingly to strike in their current contract negotiations.
- The airline locked them out – deciding not to try to operate a reduced schedule with crew who crossed a picket line or replacement workers.
- The Canadian government ordered the airline and flight attendants back to work, and to arbitration over the dispute.
However flight attendants refused to work despite the government order. They openly declared that their strike continued, and they’d sue, and they did not accept the government’s decision.
My understanding of the nuances of Canadian airline labor law is limited to recent news coverage and what I’ve read in the past two weeks as I’ve researched it. I’m not an expert, so I haven’t opined as this unfolded over the past couple of days.
Now, though, the union and its members face jail time and damages for defying the Canadian Labor Board’s authority. Union leaders say they’re ready to go to jail.
They’re clearing banking on this being a bluff. Canadians overall support flight attendants in their strike, believing that they should receive full pay for hours worked and that the union’s complaint about entry-level wages represents the overall wage conditions of cabin crew.
- Air Canada is offering significant raises
- And while the U.S. standard is moving towards boarding pay (separate pay for time spent prior to pushback) – and this represents an average of around an 8% increase in pay – it’s the unions themselves that previously did deals for higher wages, and excluding this time from the calculation because they pay method benefited senior cabin crew (who work fewer, longer flights) at the expense of junior crew (who spend more time doing unpaid boarding of short hops).
U.S. labor unions have faced massive liability for illegal job actions in the past. In 1999 American Airlines pilots engaged in an illegal “sick‑out.” Their union was held in contempt. They were hit with $45.5 million in compensatory damages. (American actually collected $20 million right away while there was a payment plan on the rest and eventual dismissal of claims by the airline against union officials. The carrier forgave the balance of remaining debt in 2003 as part of negotiations.
Here’s my read of what’s possible under Canadian law, though I’d love to hear from readers with greater familiarity than I have.
- Rank‑and‑file flight attendants face greater risk of fines than jail. An individual would need to be personally bound by a court order and then found in contempt for defying it before incarceration enters the picture. While legally possible, that’s rare. Enforcement would target the union and its officers, and it’s unlikely public opinion would support going after flight attendants themselves.
- Union officers face summary‑conviction fines under the Canada Labour Code (daily fines for the union and one‑time fines for officers), (contempt of court sanctions once the Board’s order is registered with the Federal Court; damage claims by Air Canada, usually pursued in grievance arbitration rather than civil court.
A union that “declares or authorizes” an illegal strike faces up to $1,000 per day. The penalty for an officer or union rep is $10,000.
- Courts have imposed six‑figure fines on unions themselves for illegal job action that defy similar orders (B.C. Teachers’ Federation $500,000; United Nurses of Alberta criminal‑contempt fines $250,000 and $150,000). Jail is legally available for contempt but uncommon.
- Participating in an illegal strike, though, risks $1,000 fines on summary conviction. There’s also contempt of court – though that would normally be aimed at the union for orchestratng defiance rather than individual cabin crew for participating.
The flight attendants union faces real risk. Union officers face manageable risk. Flight attendants seem likely to be… fine? Hopefully this is resolved quickly, with better wages and minimum disruption.
No no no…their bank accounts HAVE to be frozen. Only fair considering what Trudeau did to the truckers et al who dared to defy his COVID jab edicts!
Better late than never, Gary.
As I’ve said before, we, as consumers, really should be supporting workers (and their unions); well-paid, well-supported crews make for safer, more comfortable flying experiences. Hope they can reach a resolution soon.
Other than the typical union-bashing on here, it’d be nice to hear from anyone with actual experience in Canada; otherwise, some comments are just gonna be like @Steve above, some ‘wishing’ for harm against perceived enemies, which is just sad.
@1990 – While it may be technically true that “well-paid, well-supported crews make for safer, more comfortable flying experiences” the unions will ensure that this is never the case. The entire business model of a union (and yes, they are big businesses) is to keep workers angry and unsatisfied. The more that workers feel that they are being underpaid, taken advantage of, and exploited, the greater their need for a union. For this reason, it is highly unlikely that with the exception of a short window following a new contract we will ever see high job satisfaction among FAs. Unions are bad for employees, bad for business, and bad for the flying public.
The FA union represents multiple national other workgroups, some of which faced the same kind of thing.
This is a worker movement in Canada and the government will come out on the short end both politically and economically.
@Doug — It’s disappointing that you feel that way, but not surprising, as corporate media really does promote such falsehoods. I wish you would not attack the entire premise of organized labor on here, but I know some of you do. How quickly we forget that unions built the middle class in our countries.
If you are with a company or in an industry with a union, you can and should be able to participate, and even become a part of leadership, if you wish. While some organizations have not served their members as well as they should, dismantling unions, as you suggest, would harm both workers and consumers, while benefiting mostly management, who are mere mercenaries for the capital class.
Historically, unions were the compromise that prevented conflicts between labor and owners from becoming violent. If you take away peaceful forums for disagreement, you end up escalating conflicts. Strikes are far better than showing up at peoples’ houses… So, clearly, there’s a better way of express grievances, lest we have to re-learn these lessons the hard way.
Again, I’d really like to hear from anyone with actual experience in Canada with this…
@Tim Dunn — Are you now a Canada expert? Besides, this is harming Star Alliance, not SkyTeam…
And, @Tim Dunn, let’s get more specific here: The FAs are asking for boarding pay. You must remember when Delta started paying half the hourly rate for the 40-50 minutes of boarding time, starting 2022. Was that all that unreasonable? Of course not. They’re working; pay them.
The longer the strike lasts, the greater the harm to Canada’s airlines. It will be interesting to see the actual final results.
Why weren’t FA’s paid for boarding time worked? (at least for the US airlines). Cause the airlines are just grubby businesses? Or because the senior FA mamas used this as a way to further screw over the junior FA’s and required this language in the labor contracts. Hint–it wasn’t the companies idea to not pay for boarding time.
@1990 – To be clear, I did not call for dismantling unions. If workers want to join a union, they should be free to do so. My opinion that they are a net negative should not infringe on their right to organize. However, I do also believe that workers should be free not to join the union, as nobody should be forced to pay an outside organization (that they may or may not agree with) as a precondition for employment. You mentioned that the FAs are asking for boarding pay, however as Gary has already noted, they don’t get boarding pay because the unions didn’t negotiate for boarding pay in their previous contract. This isn’t some evil Air Canada scheme to screw the FAs. The union business model continues to revolve around negotiating distorted contracts that benefit their most senior members (i.e. union leadership) at the expense of junior members while using those junior members’ low pay and crappy work rules as justification for why they need a better contract. The only ones that really benefit are the top 10% of most senior FAs, bad employees who would likely be fired without a union, and of course, the union leadership that get rich off the backs of low-paid junior FAs (who still have to pay the union for the contract that screwed them over).
(Canadian living in America perspective)
AC has been a whiner to the government at every turn over the decades….they have always looked at the government to solve thier messes by ineffective air passenger rights, bailouts, and binding arbitration on labour issues. They also got binding arbitration with the AC pilots last year too.
This actually represents more than just AC at this point. The government has used Section 107 (this was obscure language from a long time ago that was discovered by the liberals…kind of akin of the foreign enemies act provisions in the states in terms of old language) many times over the past few years to quash any strike or disruption to the Canadian economy or citizens due to its precarious minority governement status including being under the very unpopular Justin Trudeau…Mark Carney has a similar minority government too. However, now labour has had enough of the mass overriding of collective bargaining rights that is in the Charter….but it has loopholes to terminate your civil rights legally as they see fit(look at quebec and covid era rules and the current climate hiking bans in the eastern provinces).
Labour has been pushed to the wall and are upset….when there is nothing left….you are empowered to push back harder….this is akin to the trucker convoy protests with endless covid lockdowns…when there isnt anything left people come out angry….its labours turn here.
@Doug — Key word… *previous* contract; clearly, the union and its members are trying to negotiate better terms under these new circumstances.
And, I note your attempt at ‘divide and conquer’ tactics (old vs. new, etc.), as well as the overused trope of ‘but, but… I don’t wanna pay dues, I just want the benefits the union provides…’ however, it seems they are not taking that silly bait, at least up in Canada.
Otherwise, I’m glad that we agree no one is ‘evil’ here. Hope these FAs get better terms soon!
Canadian here.
Air Canada has agreed to boarding pay in their latest offer to CUPE (the union).
Total increase in pay in latest offer is a 38% overall raise from previous contract.
Everybody in the responses so far here is correct in some shape or form. About both AC and the union.
Good luck to you all in figuring this out. Better you than me. Or I.
Cheers
@Steve M. — Thanks for sharing.
If you are indeed a Canadian, how do you feel about the ’51st state’ comments by our President?
(Like, are you in Alberta, and feel like that was ‘just fine by you’? And the tariffs are ‘cool,’ too?)
(Or, more, like, that was really upsetting, and you’re only going to buy-Canadian, on guard for thee.)