A labor relations board declared a strike by Air Canada’s 10,000 flight attendants illegal on Monday and ordered their union to tell them to return to work by midday.
But whether the decision by the Canada industrial relations board will bring an end to the walkout, which shut down Canada’s biggest airline, was not entirely clear.
The Canadian Union of Public Employees contends that the government’s decision on Saturday to end the strike by taking it to binding arbitration is itself illegal and violates its members’ constitutional right to strike. It filed an application for an injunction to block the back to work order with the Federal Court of Canada over the weekend.
In a statement, Air Canada estimated that the strike, which began early Saturday morning, had resulted in the cancellation of 500,000 passengers’ flights.
“Air Canada regrets this impact on its customers and is fully committed to returning to service as soon as possible,” it said.
The union did not have an immediate comment.
The independent Canada Industrial Relations board has gave the union until noon Monday to call off the strike.
Air Canada had hoped to declare that it would restart some flights Sunday evening. It later changed the restart date to Monday evening.
The office of Patty Hajdu, Canada’s labor minister, declined to comment.
Air Canada controls about 48 percent of available seat miles in Canada, the industry measure of capacity, and, unlike its smaller competitors offers international service to 65 countries. While it said that it would attempt to rebook passengers on other airlines, the peak summer travel period and the lower capacity of its competitors have made that difficult. Many passengers have been rebooked on Air Canada flights days after their original departure dates in the apparent hope that the airline will be up and running again.
The union is seeking higher wages, particularly for its least senior members. It also wants Air Canada to join other carriers in the United States by ending the industry practice of not paying for work by attendants before planes take off and after they land.
Air Canada has responded publicly by citing the earning of its most senior flight attendants. It said that it has offered to pay for groundwork but it is unclear from its news releases if the flight attendants would be paid at the same rate as for in-flight work.
Ian Austen reports on Canada for The Times. A Windsor, Ontario, native now based in Ottawa, he has reported on the country for two decades. He can be reached at [email protected].
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