Dear Prime Minister: Former MP backs flight attendants, calls for Labour Code change

As Air Canada and the union representing the airline’s flight attendants head into mediation, a former Tri-Cities MP is calling on the prime minister to make a small but substantial change to the Labour Code.

Section 107 of the code allows the Minister of Labour to take action that will “secure industrial peace.” That action can mean the Canadian Industrial Relations Board ends a strike and takes over arbitration.

The government has been using Section 107 as a “tool of convenience,” according to former Port Moody-Coquitlam MP Bonita Zarrillo.

“This overreach removed any incentive for Air Canada to negotiate in good faith and harmed the collective bargaining process,” Zarrillo wrote in an open letter to Prime Minister Mark Carney.

Zarrillo is asking residents to send the email to Carney before Parliament is back in session Sept. 15.

The government ordered flight attendants back to work approximately 12 hours after they went on strike. The attendants initially rejected the order, striking for three days.

Flight attendants recently voted against a deal that would have ratified a new collective agreement, with 99.1 percent of employees rejecting the proposal, according to a statement from the Canadian Union of Public Employees.

Air Canada confirmed there were will no strike or lockout as the process moves to mediation and possibly arbitration.

If efforts with a mediator are unsuccessful, the matter will be turned over to CIRB arbitrator.

There weren’t any good-faith bargaining sessions with Air Canada, according to Wesley Lesosky, president of the Air Canada component of CUPE.

“The company expected the federal government to intervene and take away the only leverage we had – our right to go on strike,” Lesosky stated in a release.

Air Canada thanked employees for their dedication.

“The negotiations period has been challenging for all Air Canada stakeholders. We deeply appreciate the patience and the confidence our customers have shown as we worked through this process,” the statement read.

Before being voted out of office earlier this year, Zarrillo pushed for an airline industry standard that would ensure flight attendants are paid for their training as well as the work they do before the plane takes off and after it lands.

“Big airline bosses are profiting off of unpaid labour of flight attendants,” Zarrillo said in a speech in Parliament in 2024.

Zarrillo put forward a private member’s bill mandating that airlines pay flight attendants for a “pre-flight and post-flight duties,” as well as training at their regular wage rate.

Minister for Labour Steven MacKinnon didn’t support the bill at the time, contending that airlines are private sector entities and that the government’s role is to set a minimum standard.

“Flight attendants have a collective agreement which sets out their hours and their wages and it’s not my place to comment on it,” MacKinnon replied.