The Canadian government on Saturday moved to end a strike by Air Canada flight attendants.
The strike had forced largest airline to cancel all of its 700 daily flights and grounded over 100,000 passengers at the peak of the summer travel season.
Why has the Canadian government intervened in the strike?
The government has ordered an immediate end to the strike and for the Canada Industrial Relations Board to impose binding arbitration on Air Canada and the striking cabin crew.
The airline had requested the move, while the flight attendants, who walked off the job early Saturday demanding better pay and conditions, had been opposed to it.
“The talks broke down. It is clear that the parties are not any closer to resolving some of the key issues that remain and they will need help with the arbitrator,” Canadian Jobs Minister Patty Hajdu told a press conference.
She added that Air Canada had said it would take up to five days for its operations to resume fully.
“Canadians are increasingly finding themselves in very difficult situations and the strike is rapidly impacting the Canadian economy,” Hajdu said, according to a statement.
She explained that the government had to act to “preserve stability and supply chains in this unique and uncertain economic context.”
Hajdu added that her arbitration order was “critical to maintaining and securing industrial peace, protecting Canadians and promoting conditions to resolve the dispute.”
Flying in Canada, the world’s second largest country, is often the only viable option for long-distance journeys.
Why did the flight attendants go on strike?
In a social media post, just before 01:00 ET (05:00 GMT), the union represented by the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) confirmed the 72-hour freeze.
More than 10,000 Air Canada flight attendants were participating in the strike over a pay dispute with the airline.
Currently, the flight attendants are paid only when they are flying.
However, the union wants flight attendants to be compensated for the time they spend on the ground between flights and as they help passengers board.
The airline and the union had been in talks for months, but the negotiations collapsed when the union turned down the airline’s request to enter into government-directed arbitration.
Air Canada, which is based in Montreal, said the strike, which would also have impacted the airline’s budget arm Air Canada Rouge, was due to affect around 130,000 passengers per day.
Edited: by Jenipher Camino Gonzalez and Rana Taha
The post Air Canada: Gov’t forces striking cabin crew back to work appeared first on Deutsche Welle.
