Air Canada flight attendants said on Sunday they will remain on strike and challenge a return-to-work order they called unconstitutional, defying a government decision to force them back to their duties by 2 p.m. ET (1800 GMT).
Air Canada had said it planned to resume flights on Sunday evening, a day after the Canadian government issued a directive to end a cabin crew strike that caused the suspension of around 700 daily flights, stranding more than 100,000 passengers.
The Canadian Union of Public Employees said in a statement that members would remain on strike and invited Air Canada back to the table to “negotiate a fair deal.”
Back to work legislation ostensibly exists for situations where a strike compromises public safety or well-being. Healthcare workers or power plant operators or what have you.
You could argue that even this is too far and the employers involved should be the ones on the hook to do whatever is necessary to get things running, but the ad absurdum argument there is that it would effectively mean those employees have infinite bargaining power.
It definitely gets misapplied though, and this is certainly one such case.