NEW UPDATE: Is This The Solution?

I continue to be befuddled by the fact that airlines can mandate unpaid work for its flight attendants. A check of the Canadian Labour Code shed no light, as it would seem the only ones excluded from the payment are interns, who are not considered employees under the code.

The answer would seem to be to legislate whatever changes are necessary to eliminate this gross inequity. And if you clicked on the link in my previous post, you will know that David Climenhaga is advocating such. And given the attendants' adamant refusal to go back to work, despite a Canadian Industrial Relations Board order to do so, immediate action is required.

Let's be honest here. The Carney-led Liberal government has no one but itself to blame for the imbroglio. In a CBC report dated August 13, before the strike, 

flight attendants from a number of carriers have been calling on the federal government to make changes to the Canada Labour Code to address unpaid work.

"It's not a huge ask, really. All people are asking for is to be paid for their time on the job," CUPE spokesperson Hugh Pouliot told CBC News.

"It's a very problematic situation, not just for Air Canada flight attendants, but flight attendants across the board."

And I suspect that last sentence represents one of the sticking points for the government. As I wrote in the past many times, under Justin' Trudeau's leadership, there was nary a corporate entity the Liberals didn't love. If the same holds true of its current leadership, they will be loathe to do what must be done to end the dispute: promise to pass legislation as soon as Parliament resumes that will rectify the egregious exploitation of labour currently practised by all Canadian airlines, i.e., corporate entities, and make it retroactive to the time they return to work. Such a good-faith gesture, I think, would be well-received by the union, the CUPE leadership and, most importantly, the Canadian public, which strongly supports the attendants' cause. 

For their part, a majority of Canadians are calling on the airline to pay up before the planes tilt up and compensate service crew for the full breadth of their flight duties.

We also have to remember something.

Both the Conservatives and NDP introduced bills last parliamentary session that would have changed the Labour Code to ensure flight attendants are paid for pre- and post-flight duties. But both bills died when the House was dissolved earlier this year.

 Pouliot said it's encouraging to see opposition parties supporting the changes, but said it's "tragic and confounding" that the Liberals haven't backed the move.

"I think you would be looking at a fundamentally different situation at Air Canada right now if the Liberals — a year and a half ago — had decided to play ball with the other parties," he said.

However, there is evidence to suggest the government isn't that keen on ending airlines' modern slave practices. Again, before the strike actually began, 

When asked by CBC News, a spokesperson from Jobs Minister Patty Hajdu's office didn't comment on whether the Liberals would support changes to the Labour Code to address flight attendants' concerns. But they encouraged Air Canada and CUPE to reach an agreement.

The damage to the government's reputation cannot be minimized, especially given that the other parties see the present situation as iniquitous. 

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre and Conservative labour critic Kyle Seeback wrote a letter to Hajdu last week calling for the Liberals to make the Labour Code changes.

"No other federally regulated worker would accept being on the job without being paid and neither should flight attendants. It's time to end this outdated and unfair practice," their letter reads.

Speaking to reporters Wednesday, Conservative MP Michelle Rempel Garner reiterated her party's stance.

"As somebody who is a frequent flyer, I think they should be paid for [pre- and post-flight duties]," Rempel Garner told reporters on Parliament Hill.

"I hope that the union and management can come to an agreement on this, but certainly the principles that were contained in that bill last year are things we stand behind as a party."

Unless the Liberal government wants to continue to be schooled by the Conservatives and condemned by both the air attendants and the flying public, they must act with dispatch. 

UDATE: Is this the amateur hour? Is this really the best the Liberals can do here? Is it an admission of gross ministerial incompetence? Was Hadju absent from the last session of Parliament when two parties introduced bills to change the Labour Code? Or is it just another example of the contempt government has for the people it 'serves'?

 

Patti Hadju is planning to investigate allegations of unpaid work? Lord, save us from these duplicitous, benighted fools!

LATEST UPDATE: It appears, after negotiating throughout the night, that a tentative deal has been struck.

CUPE, which represents more than 10,000 Air Canada flight attendants, said that after nine hours of talks with the assistance of the chief mediator appointed by the federal government, the deal struck will be presented to its membership, who will have an opportunity to ratify it.

Among the sticking points for the union was the issue of pay for work performed while planes are on the ground. While not elaborating on the issue, the union said in a statement provided to CBC News that "unpaid work is over." 

 

UPDATED: A Craven Capitulation To Corporate Canada

To say I am beside myself with disgust and loathing for our 'new' Liberal government would be an understatement. That is not to say, however, that I am the least bit surprised, except perhaps by the speed with which it capitulated to its corporate overseers.

By now, I'm sure most know that the back to work/compulsory arbitration order came from Jobs Minister Patty Hadju a mere 12 hours after Air Canada flight attendants struck. This ensures that the employees will continue, for the time being, working for free for the carrier while on the ground until the arbitration process is complete. And that process will likely leave unpaid work, the major element of the strike, unresolved.

Cupe has responded by accusing the of Liberal Party of "violating our charter rights". They allege that forcing a bargain to end the strike will "ensure unresolved issues will continue to worsen by kicking them down the road".

Also noteworthy is the justification Hadju used for so precipitously ending the job action, a justification that eerily echoes the kind of rhetoric and rationale Trump uses to legitimize his illegal tariffs on the world. 

Trump, you may recall, justified his unilateral imposition of the import duties by declaring a national economic emergency. Hadju mimicked him in her own justification:

"This is not a decision that I have taken lightly but the potential for immediate negative impact on Canadians and our economy is simply too great," Hajdu said at a news conference in Ottawa Saturday. 

And reminiscent of the old Groucho Marx line,  "Who are you going to believe, me or your own eyes," Hadju states:

"I absolutely reject the notion that our government is anti-union," she said.

"In a case like this, where multiple efforts have been made to conclude an agreement that satisfies both parties, and it is clear that they are at an impasse, it is very clear they need some help in arbitrating the final items."

Many are not buying this: 

"It really is a troubling development," said Barry Eidlin, an expert on labour and social movements at McGill University.

"Section 107 basically just allows the labour minister this unilateral power to intervene to order workers back to work against their will. And that is extremely concerning."

And the crux of the matter is this:

"We have a real concern that employers are getting the message that they can simply surface bargain, let the issues run to impasse and at that point the government will intervene," said Chris Roberts, director of social and economic policy at the Canadian Labour Congress.

So there we have it. Yet another iteration of the Liberals as Conservative Lite. If I were PP and his pals, I would be starting to despair about any hopes of early return to power.

BREAKING NEWS: Well, things are getting very interesting. 

Air Canada flight attendants will defy the back-to-work order and remain on strike after the federal government ordered binding arbitration to end the work stoppage, the Canadian Union of Public Employees told Radio-Canada on Sunday.

The union, which represents the 10,000 flight attendants, has accused federal Jobs Minister Patty Hajdu of caving to Air Canada's demands.

"I don't think anyone's in the mood to go back to work," Lillian Speedie, vice-president of CUPE Local 4092, told CBC's News Network at a picket line outside Toronto Pearson International Airport in Mississauga on Sunday.

"To legislate us back to work 12 hours after we started? I'm sorry, snowstorms have shut down Air Canada for longer than we were allowed to strike."

 CUPE maintained it opposed arbitration, instead preferring to solve the impasse through bargaining. It said her decision "sets a terrible precedent."

"The Liberal government is rewarding Air Canada's refusal to negotiate fairly by giving them exactly what they wanted," the union wrote...

Stay tuned for whatever happens next. 

UPDATE: David Climehaga does his usual excellent work at Alberta Politics. Take a look at his latest post to see his take on the entire issue.

 

Political Theatre Writ Large

                                      

For those unfamiliar with the death of Chuckles the Clown on the Mary Tyler Show, please click here. The episode ranks as one of the funniest in television history, its dark absurdity eliciting laughter that some would deem inappropriate.

I chose the above as my graphic because I am so often these days thinking of the absurdity of political theatre - you know, the type that happens when government tries to convince the electorate that it is serious about flexing its muscle in the face of corporate power. Such enactments are designed to divert our attention away from the fact that corporations control our governments. 

The theatre currently on offer is called Standing Up To The Tech Giants. The scenario goes like this: the Canadian government, in order to protect our sovereignty and our democracy, is demanding that Meta and Google pay news organizations for the content showcased by their respective algorithms. Thanks to the resistance put up by both entities, the government is pulling ads from Meta and Instagram, which are now refusing to carry Canadian news on their sites; Google will face similar consequences when it stops showcasing Canadian news. Personally, it means nothing to me that those two will no longer be sites where I can find links to news; I read several newspapers, one print and two digital, because I abhor living in ignorance or a restricted worldview. 

Is the Canadian response a blow struck in defence of democracy and sovereignty? Maybe, but our leaders lack any real appetite to tackle the corporations that exert even more influence/control over our lives. One example, of which I have previously written, is the Rogers-Shaw merger. Despite the protracted spectacle of that theatre, the merger was, as I always knew it would be, ultimately granted. The fact that the feds want to protect and cosset such a cellphone quasi-monopoly is reflected in the fact that they refuse to allow foreign competition into the field. 

And what about the toothless Parliamentary inquiry into grocery prices in Canada? You know, the one where executives thumbed their noses at our representatives.

The sorriest part of the Competition Bureau’s just-released market report on grocery competition in Canada is not its obvious conclusion — we need more competition in the sector — but the lack of disclosure reported by the grocery giants.

We recall the parliamentary hearings this past spring when MPs pushed grocery executives for granular financial data on food profits, essential to validating, or disputing, the “greedflation” charge levelled against retailers as grocery prices rose and rose and rose.

And we recall the high degree of corporate pushback from executives appearing before those hearings who declined to air their profit margins, specifically on food, in the public realm.

Now we know that despite promised confidentiality from the Competition Bureau, co-operation from the industry was mixed. To quote the report: “In many instances, the bureau was not able to obtain complete and precise financial data, despite its repeated requests.”

The government's answer is not to create legislation that would compel disclosure, nor will it entertain the NDP's suggestion about taxing grocers' windfall profits. No, its response is that we need more competition. How that can be achieved is not included in the current theatrical run.

The other response is to subsidize the grocers' excessive profits by sending out rebate checks that will do nothing to tame corporate greed but perhaps score a few political points for the governing Liberals. But even that attempt seems to be falling flat:

If you watched the entire clip, you will have noticed the corporate world's best Canadian friend, Justin Trudeau, blaming the high cost of food on the pandemic, the war in Ukraine, etc. Nary a word about corporate greed, that omission exactly what his friends in high places like and encourage.

To draw upon a cliché, the current corporate/government hybrid presiding over us is happy to treat us like mushrooms. Mushrooms are kept in the dark and fed manure. 

Just like the citizens of Canada.