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AC workers suspended for 'applauding' Lisa Raitt -- vote to support the sympathy strike!
March 23, 2012 - 8:46am
I think this is the first time I've encourage people to vote in an online poll. Oh well.
Cast your ballot at this site please
I mentioned it in the pilots' thread but I think this deserves its own thread. Thanks for starting it Unionist.
ETA: Which way did you want me to vote?
It's sad when people are forced to consider wildcat action as their only alternative, but when they do there's also an uplifting feel to it.
Yes I saw your post Caissa - and the way I feel right now, I'm thinking we should mention it in every thread.
An injury to one is an injury to all!
73% now in support of the workers!
ETA:
For Saganash, of course.
I've long been a supporter of wildcat strikes. The government shouldn't get to sanction the rules for striking. Unless of course we by the argument that the government is a neutral arbiter between workers and employers.
The strike spreads!
Canada's passenger air system is in chaos this morning after a wildcat strike by Air Canada baggage handlers and ground crews at its busiest airport in Toronto, and the illegal action has spread to at least one other city - Montreal.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/story/2012/03/23/air-canada-wildcat.html
ETA: From same article:
Newfoundland and Labrador MHA Gerry Rogers said her flight from St. John's sat on the tarmac at Pearson for an hour before she could get off the plane, and she had yet to collect her luggage.
"We can't continue to have government interfering in these ways and breaking the backs of unions. This is about workers' rights, and I totally support this. If I have to wait in this airport for 10 hours for my luggage, so be it."
Just voted - 60% support for the workers
A general wildcat strike might be just the thing to herald the new Conservative budget.
Striking Air Canada ground workers in Toronto and Montreal are returning to work after the company succeeded in getting an injunction Friday morning, CTV Montreal reports.
The injunction was granted by an arbitrator at 9:30 a.m. Friday.
Read more: http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/TopStories/20120323/wildcat-strike-air-canada-ground-crews-toronto-pearson-120323/#ixzz1pwxMp7Tq
OTTAWA — Departure and arrival boards at Ottawa Airport were lit with red Friday morning, fallout from a wildcat strike by Air Canada ground crews in Toronto and Montreal.
At least five Air Canada arrivals in Ottawa from Montreal, Toronto and London, Ont., were cancelled Friday and another five delayed as the effects of the strike rippled across the country.
Four flights out were cancelled and two others were delayed as of 8 a.m.
Meanwhile, dozens of flights out of Toronto and Montreal were cancelled or delayed Friday morning at the same time that Air Canada's ground crew was staging a wildcat strike.
Late Thursday, about 150 ground crew workers walked off the job in Toronto. On Friday morning, Air Canada spokeswoman Isabelle Arthur told a Quebec TV network that the labour action has spread to Montreal.
At least 60 Air Canada flights out of Toronto's Pearson International Airport, and 30 out of Montreal's Pierre Elliott Trudeau, had been cancelled or delayed, according to the airports' websites.....
http://www.ottawacitizen.com/business/Ottawa+flights+affected+Canada+walkouts+Toronto+Montreal/6347989/story.html#ixzz1pwy5R1d9Passengers are irate. Just caught CP24 coverage of some asshole spitting in the face of a striker. Unbelievable.
I hope he is charged.
I'm sure he could be charged with assault.
I have no clue what this story means. Arbitrators can't grant "injunctions". Only courts can. An arbitrator can grant an "interim order" - and it seems that's what s/he did from the story, in ordering the suspended workers to be reinstated. Surprised that would happen so quickly, and I'd love to know the details. As for ordering the strikers to stop striking, that's a no-brainer that doesn't need an arbitrator's order. The Air Canada employees have no legal right to strike right now - none of them - so rather than an order, discipline or prosecution would be the next step.
Bill Trbovich, a spokesman for the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAMAW), said the parties agreed to end the action on the condition the striking workers would not receive any penalties or fines, and the three suspended employees and 37 Air Canada staff that were fired afterward would be reinstated immediately, also without fines or penalties.
Trbovich claimed Raitt was walking through the airport last night when three workers started "clapping and saying 'Oh, great job'."
"She apparently took exception to that and asked that the RCMP 'arrest these animals'," Trbovich told the National Post, although he did not personally witness the altercation.
http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/03/23/air-canada-workers-in-clapping-i...
It has been reported on Facebook that Lisa Raitt's office is currently being occupied.
She actually referred to the demonstrators as "animals"??
See it here. Flying squads rock.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FyiqD-cxyb4&feature=player_embedded#!
Thanks for sharing the link.