Air Canada strike averted

An Air Canada Boeing 777 sits at the international departure gate of Vancouver International Airport in May 2010

The union representing 6,800 Air Canada flight attendants says it has cancelled its planned strike for Thursday at midnight, after the Canada Industrial Relations Board said employees must remain on the job while their contract dispute is being reviewed.
"Flight attendants represented by the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), will not be going on strike tonight, as previously planned, following a notice by the Canadian Industrial Relations Board," the union said in a statement.
"The minister’s intervention with the labour board, as it stands, postpones the calling of a strike until the question of essential services has been ruled on."
Earlier, Ginette Brazeau, executive director of CIRB, the quasi-judicial tribunal that is responsible for interpreting parts of Canada Labour Code, told CBC News that the issue centres on essential services and "that suspends job action until the board renders a decision."
The Canadian Union of Public Employees, which represents the flight attendants, received formal notice Wednesday that Labour Minister Lisa Raitt has referred the contract dispute to the CIRB.
Her referrals ask the tribunal to decide whether the union membership's rejection of two tentative deals has "created conditions that are unfavourable" to settling the dispute, whether communities might be cut off from service to urban centres and what effect that would have on Canadians' health and safety.

Earlier in the day, CUPE had insisted it was in a "legal strike position, and has to date received no order to the contrary," while adding it remains available to resume negotiations with Air Canada.
In a statement Wednesday, Raitt said the Conservative government had been given a "strong mandate to protect the Canadian economy and Canadian jobs, so we have been closely following the negotiations between Air Canada and CUPE."
"I have asked the CIRB to review the situation at Air Canada to ensure that the health and safety of the public will not be impacted, and to determine how best to maintain and secure industrial peace and promote conditions that are favourable to the settlement of industrial disputes," the minister said.
But CUPE national president Paul Moist called Raitt's decision to go to the CIRB "outrageous."
"Her rationale for this is disingenuous, and the use of the Canada Labour Code and the CIRB in this way is indefensible," Moist said in a statement.
Whether the union is indeed in a legal strike position could be in question.
Air Canada issued a statement saying it believed a strike by the 6,800 flight attendants had been avoided because Raitt had indicated no strike or lockout action can take place while the CIRB is considering the matter.
"It is our understanding that a strike or lockout cannot take place while the matter is before the CIRB and we are puzzled by the position currently being taken by CUPE," a spokesperson for the airline said.
CUPE spokesman Robert Lamoureux said the union would "react accordingly" if the CIRB says a strike is not permitted.
"It's something fundamental to us — the right to withhold labour if we cannot reach a settlement," he said. "If we lose that right, employers will be able to have the upper hand in every situation."
Labour lawyer Paul Cavalluzzo told CBC News he firmly believes the CIRB cannot suspend the legal right to strike.

Illegal strike

Cavalluzzo pointed out that the CIRB was brought in to prevent an illegal strike by security screeners at Toronto's Pearson airport last week. He said the board only intervenes in legal strikes if there is illegal activity, and, even then, the board cannot stop the strike entirely. "I don't think the CIRB has the authority to stop [a strike]," he said.
The flight attendants served a 72-hour strike notice on the airline on Sunday after 65 per cent of the votes cast were against the latest tentative collective agreement.
It marked the second time in recent months that the flight attendants have turned down a tentative deal with the airline.
They voted 87.8 per cent against ratifying the previous agreement in August.
Raitt has said a work stoppage would be unacceptable, and has indicated the federal government was prepared to use back-to-work legislation to end a strike by the flight attendants. However, Parliament is not due to resume sitting until Oct. 17, meaning a strike could last a few days before legislation goes into effect.