Flight attendant strike sets new precedent for Canada Post labour talks: lawyer

Lawyer Lily Coodin discusses how the Air Canada strike could impact what happens during negotiations between Canada Post and postal workers.

Last week, Air Canada flight attendants refused to comply with a federal return-to-work order, extending a strike long enough to secure a new deal with their airline.

Toronto-based labour lawyer Lily Coodin says that could be interesting news to the union representing Canadian postal workers, whose strike was paused late last year by a similar federal mandate.

“I think anyone working in a unionized context, especially Canada Post, is looking closely at what happened with Air Canada,” she told CTV Your Morning in an interview Thursday.

“If you are a union engaged in negotiations right now, you’re thinking: ‘Is this a tactic I may want to use in the future’?”

Flight attendants began striking overnight Saturday after a breakdown in contract negotiations, most prominently over compensation for work done before and after takeoff.

The strike, which the airline says grounded hundreds of flights and disrupted travel plans for more than 100,000 passengers, lasted less than a day before the government intervened.

Federal Jobs Minister Patty Hajdu announced Saturday afternoon that she was ordering operations to resume under Section 107 of the Canada Labour Code, extending the previous collective agreement and arranging binding arbitration to determine a new contract.

The flight attendants rejected those orders, continuing to strike under potential threats of fines and imprisonment until they reached a new tentative agreement with Air Canada Tuesday, pending a coming union vote.

The government gave a similar order late last year, following a month-long strike by the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW), but as negotiations with Canada Post drag on, questions have emerged about the legislation that forced them back to the bargaining table in the first place.

“People are wondering: What is the value of Section 107 if a union can say: ‘Actually, we don’t like that order, and we’re not going to comply’?” Coodin said. “Everyone is taking note, and we will probably see more of this, going forward.”

She said that, historically, Section 107 leans toward supporting employers, as it weakens the power of unions to apply pressure through work stoppages.

“If you take away that ability to strike, which is by the way a constitutionally protected right, that is a major tool that the union loses,” Coodin said. “This tends to be more favourable to the company.”

Earlier this week, Canadian Labour Congress president Bea Bruske described the section as “effectively dead," now that the flight attendants have shown it pays to ignore the order.

“Unions, workers, the labour movement has been emboldened by this and we’re not going to turn around,” she told The Canadian Press in an interview Tuesday.

In recent months, the CUPW has rejected what Canada Post called its "final offer," though the union has since returned with a new counter offer, and it remains unclear if a resumed strike is on the horizon.

Strike positions

Though the CUPW’s strike was suspended by the same kind of order that the flight attendants ignored, their respective employers are facing different financial circumstances.

Both labour disputes have arisen from complaints of insufficient pay, but while Air Canada reported $418 million in income after costs last quarter, Canada Post hasn’t seen profits since 2017, and has lost $3 billion in that time.

As of its most recent annual report, the mail carrier has pitched ending services, including daily door-to-door delivery, in an effort to cut costs.

The union’s latest offer calls for yearly pay increases, expanded weekend services and the addition of new part-time workers.

“This is a company … that’s been losing money for seven years,” Coodin said. “We really need to strike a balance where employees need to be treated fairly, they need to be paid a living wage, but you also need a viable business on the other end of it.”

She notes that circumstances have likely worsened for Canada Post in recent months, as looming fears of a strike have a tendency to drive away customers wary of disrupted service.

“That can do even more harm to the company’s bottom line,” she said.

According to Canada Post, strike-related uncertainty has caused business to “drop significantly,” with delivered parcel volumes down 65 per cent from the same time in 2024.

With files from CTV News’ Toula Mazloum and The Canadian Press