Victory for flight attendants! Now repeal Section 107!

The tentative agreement reached between Air Canada and its 10,000 flight attendants, represented by the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), is a significant victory for workers across Canada in the fight to protect the right to strike. This win, which according to the union includes the critical demand for guaranteed ground pay to end some 35 hours of unpaid work per month, was hard fought. It was won through the unity and militancy of workers who were prepared to defy an anti-union back-to-work order.

The Communist Party of Canada condemns in the strongest terms the Liberal government of Mark Carney for its immediate and predictable intervention to stifle free collective bargaining. Just hours after flight attendants legally walked off the job, Jobs Minister Patty Hajdu invoked the anti-worker Section 107 of the Canada Labour Code, ordering them back to work and imposing binding arbitration. This comes after a year of using Section 107 to break the strikes of dock, railway, and postal workers. This new attack on workers’ rights is being used under the phony pretext of the “public interest.” It exposes the government’s true role: protecting corporate profits over workers rights.

The fact that a deal was reached almost immediately after the union defied this order proves that a united and militant membership and a united labour movement can win. The government’s intervention was a strike-breaking manoeuvre designed to tilt the scales in favour of Air Canada management, which had clearly been counting on a federal bailout rather than good-faith bargaining. This pro-corporate pattern is consistent: from railways and ports to Canada Post, the Liberals and Conservatives have a long history of using state power to break strikes and suppress wages.

Section 107 is a powerful tool for employers, encouraging them to avoid serious bargaining and wait for a friendly government to force workers into arbitration, bypassing parliamentary debate and accountability. It must be repealed.

This struggle is part of a broader fight against the corporate agenda in aviation. We echo CUPE’s call to reject the Competition Bureau’s dangerous push for further deregulation, including increased foreign ownership and the elimination of rules protecting domestic routes. These measures would sacrifice jobs, public safety, and sovereignty for the sole benefit of Wall Street and Bay Street.

The Communist Party continues to demand the renationalization of Air Canada and the reversal of the pro-corporate “Open Skies” policy. We must build a strong, publicly-owned air transport system that serves people, not profits.

This victory demonstrates the growing militancy in the labour movement. The unity of all unions behind flight attendants and CUPE was key. We celebrate this step forward for flight attendants and call on the entire movement to harness this renewed energy. We must intensify the fight to repeal Section 107 and all anti-union laws, and to defend and expand the rights of all workers in a bill of labour rights to enshrine the right to organize, bargain, and strike.

Central Executive Committee, Communist Party of Canada