Air Canada workers back on the job Friday
Labour Minister Lisa Raitt called the tentative settlement “excellent news.”
“The best deal you can have is the one they did themselves. We’re very, very pleased with how it unfolded,” Raitt said in Ottawa.
She said the threat of back-to-work legislation was a “tool that was needed to focus the parties and narrow the issues.”
The CAW’s Bob Chernecki had blasted the swift government intervention, calling it “collusion” between Conservation politicians and the airline. Raitt had insisted that the threat of legislation was meant to turn up the pressure on the two sides to come to an agreement.
Few details were available, pending ratification, but the four-year deal that includes wage increases and delays any changes to existing pension benefits until 2013.
However, on the most controversial issue of switching to a defined contribution plan, for new hires only, from a defined benefit plan, the parties agreed to send that to arbitration.
“For future Air Canada employees, we regret that we were not able to put in the collective agreement a defined benefit pension,” CAW president Ken Lewenza told reporters at a news conference. “But for us to prolong the strike, it would absolutely make no sense at this time.”
Given that the CAW took such a strong position against moving to a defined contribution plan for new hires, it would have been near-impossible to back down.
By agreeing to arbitration, the parties essentially delay a decision, but the CAW probably thought its chances were better than with a retired judge appointed by the government through back to work legislation.
Air Canada workers back on the job Friday - thestar.com
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Anyone else have a bitter taste in their mouth knowing that the government is deliberately holding these peoples' future by the balls?
