Letter to the Honourable Patty Hajdu

Hon. Patty Hajdu
Minister of Jobs and Families

Dear Ms. Hajdu

I am writing to you on behalf of the Union of Canadian Transportation Employees to express our deep disappointment with your decision to impose binding arbitration between Air Canada and CUPE flight attendants. It is not the role of the federal government to interfere in the collective bargaining process, especially when your actions tip the scale in favour of the employer and deprives the workers of their right to freely bargain and to withdraw their labour to ensure fair treatment and working conditions.

We believe that instead of ordering the flight attendants back to work, your government should be legislating Air Canada to pay their employees for all hours they have worked instead of insisting on unpaid labour. We strongly urge you to withdraw this attempt to manipulate the bargaining process and to ensure a level playing field where workers and their unions can achieve fairness and justice at the bargaining table.

An injustice to one is an injustice to all.

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CC:      Hon Mark Carney, Prime Minister of Canada,
Mark Hancock, National President CUPE