With less than 24 hours remaining before Canada’s largest airline fully grounds nearly all flights, unionized Air Canada flight attendants have rejected Ottawa’s attempts to consider binding arbitration to force a deal.
Intervention by Ottawa to bring the eight-month dispute to a close through binding arbitration should be “firmly rejected,” according to an Aug. 15 statement from the Air Canada chapter of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), saying it amounts to interference. Air Canada had previously asked the union to consider a binding arbitration to bring the dispute to a resolution.
Canada’s Minister of Jobs and Families Patty Hajdu said Aug. 14 that she had asked for union members to respond to Air Canada’s request concerning the resolution of the dispute through binding arbitration. Binding arbitration occurs when an independent mediator hears the arguments of both sides and makes a legally binding decision to resolve the matter….