What's at stake for Pierre Poilievre in this Alberta byelection?
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
CBC
5 minutes ago
- CBC
4 Things to know about the Air Canada labour dispute
Social Sharing After months of stalled negotiations, 10,000 Air Canada flight attendants walked off the job early Saturday morning. The federal government stepped in hours later to order binding arbitration, forcing an end to the strike — or so they thought. The union representing Air Canada flight attendants said Sunday it would defy the back-to-work order and remain on strike. Here's everything you need to know: 1. Government intervention The federal government used a contentious section of labour law to intervene and stop the strike, which began at 12:58 a.m. ET Saturday. Jobs Minister Patty Hajdu invoked Section 107 of the Canada Labour Code, which gives the minister the power to order the end of a work stoppage to "maintain or secure industrial peace." Hajdu used her powers to direct the Canada Industrial Relations Board (CIRB) to order both the airline and the striking workers back to work. Air Canada said Sunday it had been directed by CIRB to resume operations and have flight attendants return to their duties by 2 p.m. ET. Hajdu says she chose to intervene in the labour dispute because "the potential for immediate negative impact on Canadians and our economy is simply too great." "Now is not the time to take risks with our economy," said Hajdu at a news conference in Ottawa Saturday. "A work stoppage would cause thousands of Canadians to be stranded abroad and across this country and this is simply unacceptable." WATCH | How Hajdu intervened in the Air Canada labour dispute: What is Section 107 of the Canada Labour Code? 19 hours ago Jobs Minister Patty Hajdu said she has invoked Section 107 of the Canada Labour Code to order binding arbitration between the airline and its union and has ordered operations to resume. Air Canada previously asked Hajdu to intervene with a binding arbitration order, which is one of the powers granted to the minister through Section 107 of the code. Until recently, Section 107 was a relatively unknown piece of legislation. But last year, the Liberal government invoked it in several major disputes — sending unionized employees back to work at ports, rail yards and Canada Post. Unions are taking the federal government to court for its repeated use of Section 107, arguing it violates Canadians' constitutional right to strike and sours the bargaining process. 2. Union defies back-to-work order The Air Canada Component of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) said Sunday morning it will defy the back-to-work order handed down by CIRB. Picket lines remain outside of airports in Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver and Calgary. In a statement Sunday, the union pointed to "a staggering conflict of interest" involving the chair of CIRB, Maryse Tremblay, who served as legal counsel for Air Canada for nearly seven years from 1998 to 2004, according to her LinkedIn profile. WATCH | Air Canada flight attendants defy back-to-work order: Air Canada flight attendants to remain on strike, defy back-to-work order: union 4 hours ago Air Canada had been advocating in recent days for government intervention to resolve the bargaining impasse. "We will be challenging this blatantly unconstitutional order that violates the Charter rights of 10,000 flight attendants, 70 per cent of whom are women, and 100 per cent of whom are forced to do hours of unpaid work by their employer every time they come to work," the union said. Air Canada and CUPE have been negotiating a new contract for flight attendants after the previous 10-year contract expired in March. CUPE says that wages, work rules and unpaid hours are the big issues in contention. According to CUPE, many duties performed by flight attendants prior to boarding and after deplaning, including performing required safety checks and assisting passengers, go unpaid under the current pay structure. 3. Potential union penalties The federal government has invoked Section 107 a number of times in recent years. But it is unusual for a union to defy a CIRB order. "The penalties could be significant" for the union, labour law expert Adam King told CBC News in an interview. Defying a legal back-to-work order could result in fines for the union or workers being fired. It could also lead to criminal prosecution in some cases. WATCH | Picket lines remain at major Canadian airports: Hundreds of Air Canada flight attendants picket YVR 12 hours ago Hundreds of Air Canada flight attendants demonstrated outside Vancouver International Airport Saturday. The strike prompted a warning for passengers to avoid the airport unless they have confirmed a booking on a different airline. Shaurya Kshatri reports. In 1978, members of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers were ordered back to work during a national strike. Union president Jean-Claude Parrot defied that order, with workers staying on the picket lines for a week after it was issued. Parrot was jailed for two months for refusing to comply. But King says it's also possible that CUPE's refusal to comply could work in the union's favour. He pointed to the example of Ontario Premier Doug Ford's government ordering CUPE's education workers back to work when they went on strike in 2022. "The entire labour movement in the province responded with the threat of a general strike. And the government was forced to back down and take their legislation away," said King. "If something similar happens here, we could very well see no penalties. If labour mobilizes in support of the flight attendants, they could very well be victorious in this." CBC News has reached out to Hajdu for comment on how the government will respond and will update this story with any response. 4. What does this mean for flights? Air Canada said in a statement Sunday that it will suspend plans to resume operations after CUPE indicated its intentions to remain on strike. The airline says 240 flights that were scheduled to operate beginning this afternoon have now been cancelled. The airline said it will resume flights as of Monday evening. With flight attendants refusing to return to work, it is unclear how Air Canada plans to operate these flights. CBC News has reached out to the airline for clarification. Flights by Air Canada Express, which are operated by third-party airlines Jazz and PAL, are not affected. About 130,000 customers will be affected each day the strike continues, the airline said last week. WATCH | The impact of the flight attendants' strike on travellers: Air Canada flight attendants strike, setting stage for travel chaos 2 days ago Canada's largest airline is now mostly grounded after a strike deadline passed for more than 10,000 Air Canada flight attendants. Hundreds of flights have been cancelled impacting over 100,000 travellers and leaving some stranded. The airline says customers whose flights have been cancelled will be notified and are "strongly advised" not to go to the airport unless they have confirmed flights on other airlines. Air Canada will offer those with cancelled flights other options, including a refund or credit for future travel. For customers due to travel soon, the airline said it will also offer to rebook customers on other carriers, "although capacity is currently limited due to the peak summer travel season."
CTV News
2 hours ago
- CTV News
CUPE National president rips Ottawa's back-to-work order
Video CUPE National President Mark Hancock rips up Ottawa's back-to-work order in front of a cheering crowd of striking Air Canada flight attendants.
Globe and Mail
2 hours ago
- Globe and Mail
Air Canada flight attendants on strike, China's new tariff and higher prices for weight-loss drugs in Canada: Business and investing stories for the week of Aug. 17
Getting caught up on a week that got away? Here's your weekly digest of The Globe's most essential business and investing stories, with insights and analysis from the pros, stock tips, portfolio strategies and more. Air Canada's flight attendants followed through on their threat to walk off the job early Saturday, in a bitter contract dispute between the carrier and its employees that has already led to hundreds of cancelled flights. The airline wound down operations earlier this week in anticipation of the strike. Early Saturday morning, the carrier posted a media release that it suspended all operations of Air Canada and Air Canada Rouge. Air Canada said it will resume service Sunday after Federal Jobs Minister Patty Hajdu ordered binding arbitration to put an end to the strike. However, the union said in a statement it would defy the back-to-work order. 'We remain on strike. We demand a fair, negotiated contract and to be compensated for all hours worked,' the statement read. The complete shutdown of Air Canada and Air Canada Rouge operations is estimated to affect about 130,000 passengers' travel plans daily. Mariya Postelnyak spoke to travellers who are watching their plans unravel. On Tuesday, China announced 75.8-per-cent duties on Canadian canola seed. Beijing unveiled the preliminary duty toward the end of a one-year anti-dumping probe, which began after Canada imposed high tariffs on Chinese-made electric vehicles. China's Ministry of Commerce argues that Canada's canola sector has benefited from extensive government subsidies and preferential policies that distort markets. Many in Canada's canola industry, however, say China's action is instead a political response to Canadian tariffs in other sectors. Ottawa – which is now facing a growing trade war on two fronts, with both the U.S. and China – has said it will hold off on making concessions until it knows Beijing will respond in kind. But, as Kate Helmore reports, politicians and industry representatives in Western Canada, the heart of the country's canola industry, said a forceful response is needed to resolve the trade dispute and provide financial aid to the industry. Beijing's announcement caused prices to drop $1 per bushel in Canada's $44-billion industry just weeks before harvest. This will cost the 40,000 canola farmers across the country tens of thousands of dollars each. Producers in the U.S. raised their prices at the fastest pace in three years as companies grapple with new costs from President Donald Trump's tariffs. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that the producer price index, or PPI, rose 0.9 per cent in July from the month before, more than three times faster than expected, and the largest monthly increase since March, 2022. Wholesale inflation is in a sign that import taxes are pushing up prices for domestic producers, and economists warn higher consumer prices could be next. The PPI came in hotter than the consumer price index numbers released by the labour department earlier this week. Jason Kirby takes a closer look at the latest data in this week's Decoder series. U.S. drugmaker Eli Lilly & Co. has increased prices of its popular diabetes and anti-obesity drug Mounjaro in Canada, responding to pressure from the Trump administration to lower prices in the United States and raise them elsewhere. The company also announced it is sharply raising prices in Britain to match those in other European markets. Chris Hannay reports that the moves make the company one of the most high-profile so far to respond to Mr. Trump's direction to rebalance global drug prices. Two weeks ago, he sent letters to 17 drug companies – including Lilly – telling them to increase prices in non-U.S. markets to make up for lower revenue in the U.S. The administration has also launched a national-security investigation of the sector that could lead to tariffs, which Mr. Trump has mused could be as high as 200 per cent. Zahra Khozema recently asked ChatGPT to predict her retirement. The personal finance writer, who often talks to Gen Zs and millennials about money habits, found herself worrying about whether her retirement plans were realistic after she was laid off. She writes that she found herself comparing herself to others, and wanted the chatbot to help calm her financial anxiety. It worked: 'ChatGPT created a starting point. It was like holding up a mirror and being told, gently, that maybe I'm not failing,' she writes in a recent feature. More Canadians are turning to artificial intelligence for financial advice – from setting household budgets to boosting their financial literacy – but how reliable are the answers? We posed some common personal finance questions to ChatGPT, then asked human personal finance experts to weigh in. Here's what we found. Get the rest of the questions from the weekly business and investing news quiz here, and prepare for the week ahead with The Globe's investing calendar.
