Air Canada workers trying to make pickets count before they’re forced back to work
Posted June 15, 2011 7:51 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Air Canada employees on the picket lines at Pearson International Airport Wednesday aren’t happy about the possibility of back-to-work legislation being tabled in Ottawa.
Labour Minister Lisa Raitt and Finance Minister Jim Flaherty announced the government may force an end to the labour dispute before the first full day of the strike had ended. They claim Air Canada is too important to the national economy and that a strike could threaten the economic recovery.
Strike-ending legislation could be tabled as early as Thursday, Raitt said.
“Because we may be legislated back to work within 48 hours we’ve got to make this 48 hours really count,” striking worker Doreen Graham said Wednesday. “The public needs to know business is not as usual at Air Canada.”
Others have warned things could get a lot worse if the strike wears on.
“It looks good right now,” striking worker Dawn Moreau, an Air Canada customer service agent for 34 years, said. “Is it going to stay this way? No.
“We’re on Tuesday morning, it’s probably the slowest morning of the week,” she said. “You get into your afternoon shifts, you get into your evening shifts, you get into snowball effects down the line.”
Managers and non-union workers are filling in for some of the 3,800 striking employees.
Traffic heading into an employee parking area on Viscount Road by Terminal One at Pearson Wednesday morning was slowed by striking workers.
And a second Air Canada union, the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAMAW), planned to join their colleagues on the picket line in a show of support Wednesday.
Pension and wages remain the major stumbling blocks in negotiations. A proposal to give new hires a different pension plan than existing workers is stirring the debate.
Air Canada wants to give its new workers defined contribution pension plans, instead of the defined benefit plans current employees have.
The Canadian Auto Workers union (CAW) argues the company is trying to cut worker pensions while Air Canada executives receive huge payouts and bonuses.
With files from the Canadian Press.
