The federal government is referring the labour dispute between Air Canada and its flight attendants to the Canada Industrial Relations Board, a move that will prevent the employees from going on strike Thursday, Labour Minister Lisa Raitt said.
"What it's meant to do is before there's a work stoppage, just to make sure that the work stoppage is not going to affect the health and safety of the public and that's what the CIRB will take a look at after hearing from the parties involved," Raitt said on CBC-TV's Power & Politics with Evan Solomon.
Raitt said the CIRB would have to consider what communities might be cut off from service to urban centres and what affect that would have on Canadians' health and safety.
Earlier, CUPE, the union representing the flight attendants, said it was willing to continue negotiations with the airline to stave off the strike.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/story/2011/10/11/air-canada-strike-deadline-looms.htmlAt one time, not too long ago, we owned Air Canada.
Now AC owns us!
The UAE showed us that!