Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon met both the company and the union on Thursday. Both sides are still far apart on the question of wages.
MacKinnon has broad powers to tackle disputes and last month intervened within 24 hours to end a stoppage at the country's two largest railway companies, Canadian Pacific Kansas City and Canadian National Railway.
Air Canada says this set a precedent. But while Ottawa has intervened several times in labor disputes over the last few decades, it has only done so after stoppages have begun, not before.
"We are not going to interfere, we are not going to take action before it really becomes very clear that there is no goodwill at the negotiating table," said Trudeau.
The Business Council of Canada, the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce issued a joint statement on Friday calling on Ottawa to intervene to prevent a strike before it began.
Of course they’re not interfering. The last time they did that with the railway, it cost them their supply and confidence deal with the NDP. If they do it again, do they think the Cons and the NDP will hold back on a confidence vote?
Is your government really worth whatever you’re personally getting from industry CEOs?
we are not going to take action before it really becomes very clear that there is no goodwill at the negotiating table
This feels like a promise that they'll step in as soon as its clear an actual strike will happen. All Air Canada has to do is refuse to compromise and the government will fix it for them.
The pilots have them by the balls though. Thanks to COVID schenanigans there is a demand in the US for pilots that are easily paid well above what Air Canada pilots get atm. Government steps in and pilots will migrate south en masse.
IMO Trudeau is putting pressure on AC to get this settled ASAP because they are all F'd if they dare play hardball.
Thank goodness for that. Finally something good came out of COVID. Fingers crossed, and here's hoping that the pilots get the pay raises and etc that they clearly deserve, either way.
The government has been intervening in behalf of and propping up Air Canada for longer than I've been alive, regardless of which party happens to be in office.
He has no compelling reason to do so. The railroad lockout put our entire economy and future health in jeopardy - it was a deliberate choice by the two corporations who coordinated it to threaten absolute scorched earth in Canada.
Airlines are not the vector for anything like that much of our economy. Lots of pain but not a deathblow.