Business
Flight attendants’ win proves the right to strike matters
This article supplied by Troy Media.
By Peggy Nash
Ottawa’s interference in the Air Canada strike delayed a resolution. When it stepped aside, a deal quickly followed
When governments get out of the way, collective bargaining works—and the Air Canada flight attendants proved it by reaching a deal the moment
they were left to negotiate freely.
The strike by 10,000 flight attendants ended on Aug. 19 with a tentative agreement between their union, the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), and the airline.
That only happened after the Canadian Industrial Relations Board, acting under the federal government, tried to force an end to the strike by ordering the employees back to work. The CIRB can suspend or limit strikes if it believes a labour dispute threatens public safety or the economy. In this case, it attempted to use that power to override the strike—a move workers strongly opposed.
Because Air Canada is federally regulated, labour disputes fall under federal labour law, not provincial. That gives Ottawa broader powers to intervene in disputes, including through back-to-work legislation or binding arbitration.
That legal context helps explain what happened next. The government’s attempted intervention failed. But when it stepped back and let both parties negotiate freely, a deal was reached within hours.
It was a swift and fair outcome—one that likely could have happened earlier if not for the looming threat of government interference.
Employers already hold most of the power. They decide when to invest, where to expand and who to hire or fire. They often benefit from institutional credibility and public sympathy. The only meaningful power workers have is the ability to bargain collectively, and, if necessary, to strike.
The Air Canada flight attendants—more than 70 per cent of whom are women— hadn’t been able to negotiate a proper contract in over a decade. Wages had fallen behind inflation, even as they were expected to live in some of the country’s most expensive cities. Many had less than five years’ seniority and were paid near-poverty wages. They also performed unpaid ground work before and after flights.
Their frustration translated into action. They were fighting for better pay and to be compensated for all the hours they worked. And they were united. Over 90 per cent of union members voted. Of those, 99.7 per cent backed the strike. The public supported them too.
Air Canada, however, appeared to be counting on the government to intervene—expecting Ottawa to force arbitration and deny workers a vote on their own contract.
That undermines the constitutional right to free collective bargaining and feeds growing frustration among workers as corporate profits soar while wages stagnate. Last year, Air Canada’s CEO earned $12 million while some staff struggled to make ends meet.
This kind of imbalance shows why collective bargaining rights matter. The system is meant to balance power—ensuring workers can negotiate fairly while employers continue to operate between contracts. That structure has mostly preserved labour peace in Canada.
But when government overrides that process, it invites disorder. In this case, it led to hundreds of thousands of delays for passengers, lost revenue and reputational damage, only for both sides to agree on terms they might have reached much earlier if the threat of interference hadn’t been on the table.
The outcome sets an important precedent. If major employers expect Ottawa to intervene every time a union takes job action, the right to strike becomes meaningless. And that weakens the bargaining power of workers across the country—not just in aviation.
CUPE flight attendants—and their union—deserve credit for standing up for their rights. In doing so, they rallied support across the labour movement.
The lesson is simple: when governments and corporations overreach, they risk losing control. But when workers stand together and fight for fairness, they can win.
Peggy Nash is the executive director of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.
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The Justin Trudeau and Jagmeet Singh charges of “greedflation” collapses under scrutiny.
“It’s not okay that our biggest grocery stores are making record profits while Canadians are struggling to put food on the table.” —PM Justin Trudeau, September 13, 2023.
A couple of days after the above statement, the then-prime minister and his government continued a campaign to blame rising food prices on grocery retailers.
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The line Justin Trudeau delivered in September 2023, triggered a week of political theatre. It also handed his innovation minister, François-Philippe Champagne, a ready-made role: defender of the common shopper against supposed corporate greed. The grocery price problem would be fixed by Thanksgiving that year. That was two years ago. Remember the promise?
But as Ian Madsen of the Frontier Centre for Public Policy has shown, the numbers tell a different story. Canada’s major grocers have not been posting “record profits.” They have been inching forward in a highly competitive, capital-intensive sector. Madsen’s analysis of industry profit margins shows this clearly.
Take Loblaw. Its EBITDA margin (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization) averaged 11.2 per cent over the three years ending 2024. That is up slightly from 10 per cent pre-COVID. Empire grew from 3.9 to 7.6 per cent. Metro went from 7.6 to 9.6. These are steady trends, not windfalls. As Madsen rightly points out, margins like these often reflect consolidation, automation, and long-term investment.
Meanwhile, inflation tells its own story. From March 2020 to March 2024, Canada’s money supply rose by 36 per cent. Consumer prices climbed about 20 per cent in the same window. That disparity suggests grocers helped absorb inflationary pressure rather than drive it. The Justin Trudeau and Jagmeet Singh charges of “greedflation” collapses under scrutiny.
Yet Ottawa pressed ahead with its chosen solution: the Grocery Code of Conduct. It was crafted in the wake of pandemic disruptions and billed as a tool for fairness. In practice, it is a voluntary framework with no enforcement and no teeth. The dispute resolution process will not function until 2026. Key terms remain undefined. Suppliers are told they can expect “reasonable substantiation” for sudden changes in demand. They are not told what that means. But food inflation remains.
This ambiguity helps no one. Large suppliers will continue to settle matters privately. Small ones, facing the threat of lost shelf space, may feel forced to absorb losses quietly. As Madsen observes, the Code is unlikely to change much for those it claims to protect.
What it does serve is a narrative. It lets the government appear responsive while avoiding accountability. It shifts attention away from the structural causes of price increases: central bank expansion, regulatory overload, and federal spending. Instead of owning the crisis, the state points to a scapegoat.
This method is not new. The Trudeau government, of which Carney’s is a continuation, has always shown a tendency to favour symbolism over substance. Its approach to identity politics follows the same pattern. Policies are announced with fanfare, dissent is painted as bigotry, and inconvenient facts are set aside.
The Grocery Code fits this model. It is not a policy grounded in need or economic logic. It is a ritual. It gives the illusion of action. It casts grocers as villains. It gives the impression to the uncaring public that the government is “providing solutions,” and that “it has their backs.” It flatters the state.
Madsen’s work cuts through that illusion. It reminds us that grocery margins are modest, inflation was monetary, and the public is being sold a story.
Canadians deserve better than fables, but they keep voting for the same folks. They don’t think to think that they deserve a government that governs within its limits; a government that accept its role in the crises it helped cause, and restores the conditions for genuine economic freedom. The Grocery Code is not a step in that direction. It was always a distraction, wrapped in a moral pose.
And like most moral poses in Ottawa, it leaves the facts behind.
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The Canadian Taxpayers Federation is criticizing Prime Minister Mark Carney for announcing that the government is expanding automatic tax filing within hours of the government’s consultation ending.
“There’s no way government bureaucrats pulled an all-nighter reading through thousands of submissions and survey responses before sending Carney out to make an announcement on automatic tax filing the next morning,” said Franco Terrazzano, CTF Federal Director. “Asking Canadians for their opinion and then ignoring them isn’t a good look for Carney, it makes it look like the government is holding sham consultations.”
The government of Canada announced consultations on automatic tax filing so Canadians could give the government “broad input through an online questionnaire.”
The government’s consultation ended on Thursday, Oct. 9, 2025.
Hours after the consultation ended, Carney today announced the government would expand automatic tax filing.
The CRA is already one of the largest arms of the federal government with 52,499 bureaucrats.
The CRA added 13,015 employees since 2016 – a 33 per cent increase. For comparison, America’s Internal Revenue Service has 90,516 bureaucrats. The CRA has one bureaucrat for every 800 Canadians. The IRS has one bureaucrat for every 3,800 Americans.
“The CRA can barely answer the phone, so Carney shouldn’t be giving those bureaucrats more busy work to do,” Terrazzano said. “The CRA is a bloated mess, and Carney should be cutting the cost of bureaucracy not scheming up ways to give the bureaucracy more power over taxpayers.”
The CRA only answered about 36 per cent of the 53.5 million calls it received between March 2016 and March 2017, according to a 2017 Auditor General report. When Canadians were able to get the CRA on the phone, call centre agents gave inaccurate information about 30 per cent of the time.
“The CRA acting as both tax collector and tax filer is a serious conflict of interest,” Terrazzano said. “Trusting the taxman to do your tax return is like trusting your dog to protect your burger.
“Carney should stop the CRA power grab and instead cut taxes and simplify the tax code.”
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