Today's News: a weekend roundup of news about the Air Canada flight attendants strike, the Poilievre byelection, and the Europe-Zelenskyy-Trump meeting

Its hard to keep up with all the news just now, isn't it -- I don't do much news in my "funday" posts on Saturday nights, and I usually don't put together a post on Sunday at all. So I have a news gap from Friday night until Monday night -- and these days, there seems to be a lot happening even over the weekends. 

So let's just plunge ahead: 

Air Canada flight attendants strike

It always annoys me when media focus their coverage of Canadian labour issues almost entirely on the public inconvenienced by labour action -- in this case, tales of woe from stranded people trying to book flights on other airlines. 

We usually don't get media coverage about the strikers, which would put pressure on the company or the government to address the actual issues. But this time CUPE has done a great job marshalling support for why the flight attendants are angry - I saw a statistic that said almost nine out of ten Canadians support the flight attendants, and that is outstanding because I didn't think we could ever get nine out of ten Canadians to agree on anything.

The Carney government stepped on a rake when they immediately used Section 107 of the Canada Labour Code to order binding arbitration to get the strike-lockout ended without passing actual back-to-work legislation - which I suspect would not be easy for Carney's minority government to do.
You know, I myself have been involved in several strikes over the years, sometimes in my own union and sometimes in other unions at my workplaces. And every single time my bosses and the HR negotiators sincerely but wrongly believed that the strikers "didn't really want to be on stike" and would be "really happy to be back at work" but had been "misinformed by rabble-rousing dastardly union leaders".
So I suspect that's what Air Canada also told Patty Hajdu, and now it has blown up in their faces.

Emma Arkell / Press Progress

What Air Canada’s Flight Attendants Are Fighting For
Defying an order to end the strike, union president Wesley Lesosky proclaimed, "If we stick together, they can’t fire us all"
...The dispute has brought to light major issues in how flight attendants are paid.
Flight attendants are seeking an end to mandatory unpaid work. According to CUPE, much of the work that flight attendants do before and after flights — safety checks, preparing the cabin, helping passengers, boarding and deplaning procedures — is not paid.
While workers in most industries are paid as soon as they report for duty or “clock in,” flight attendants are essentially only paid for the time that a plane is in the air.
The union is demanding that flight attendants receive a full wage for this currently-unpaid work, called “ground pay.”
...Another major sticking point is low wages.
According to CUPE, wages for entry-level flight attendants have increased by only $3/hour over more than 20 years, meaning that those workers earn just $27,000/year before taxes — below the federal minimum wage.
...Stephanie Ross, professor of labour studies at McMaster University, told PressProgress that the federal government’s track record of sending federally-regulated workers back to work during strikes and lockouts has undermined the collective-bargaining process.
She said that Air Canada has been “encouraged by the federal government’s pattern of intervention in labour disputes,” such that they’ve come to “expect that they won’t actually have to bargain seriously, because there’s a ‘Get Out of Jail Free’ card now, with the use of section 107.”
...Section 107 empowers the labour minister (now known as the Minister of Jobs and Families) to refer questions to the Canada Industrial Relations Board or direct it to do things the minister thinks are necessary to “secure industrial peace.”...
This is the fourth time in a year that the federal government has used section 107 to end a strike or lockout and send workers back to their jobs. Last year, then-Minister of Labour Steven MacKinnon sent railway, longshore and Canada Post workers back to work during strikes and lockouts.
On picket lines across the country, flight attendants remained determined to strike....

My prediction: the Courts will find that the use of s.107 for the Minister to direct the labour board to order binding arbitration to end a labour dispute is both unconstitutional and exceeds the statutory purpose of s.107 as it makes back to work legislation moot. #cdnlaw

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— Lyle Skinner (@lyleskinner.bsky.social) August 16, 2025 at 5:07 PM

Poilievre wins byelection
Next up, it was expected but also disappointing to see Poilievre win the Battle River-Crowfoot byelection so handily - looks like he will get about 80 per cent of the vote, which I expect will also be high enough to maintain his credibility in the party as leader come January.

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So it looks like Canadian progressives will still have Poilievre to kick around some more.

I knew he'd win, but I thought more people in Battle River—Crowfoot would have more self-respect than this landslide. Conservatives really are sheep. They think they're so tough and defiant but can't wait to lick the fancy shoes of an elite carpetbagger who couldn't give less of a shit about them.

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— Mary Gillis (@marygillis.bsky.social) August 18, 2025 at 10:29 PM

Europe-Zelenskyy-Trump meeting
Moving on, it still isn't clear exactly why many of Europe's leaders dropped everything to fly to Washington to back up Zelenskeyy in meeting with Trump.
I saw some interesting speculation - maybe Putin said something at the Trump-Putin Alaska summit that threatened to widen or escalate the Ukraine-Russia War. Or maybe the Europe leaders wanted Trump to realize he couldn't bully Zelenskyy into surrenduring to Putin's territory grabs. Or maybe it was just that they now understand Trump will agree with whoever speaks to him last.

The decision of European leaders to all join Zelensky in his White House visit was one of the savviest diplomatic moves I’ve seen in a long time. Historic. THAT is how you unify for democracy.

— David Pepper (@davidpepperoh.bsky.social) August 18, 2025 at 5:11 PM

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— JeffTrnka (@jefftrnka.bsky.social) August 18, 2025 at 4:28 PM

Maybe this is why Putin went to Alaska to remind Trump why he has to force Ukraine to capitulate.

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— George Takei (@georgetakei.bsky.social) August 18, 2025 at 5:28 PM

SUSIE WILES: "After the last Oval Office ambush, Zelensky is bringing friends." DONALD TRUMP: "Well, then I'll bring friends." SUSIE WILES: "You'd have to have some first."

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— Mrs. Betty Bowers (@mrsbettybowers.bsky.social) August 17, 2025 at 10:55 AM

And I wondered whether Carney had been involved behind the scenes too:

Carney joined the Coalition of the Willing meeting today.

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— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) August 17, 2025 at 1:41 PM

By the way, this was very obvious as Trump was babbling today about solving six wars:

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Tomorrow I want to share some great videos I found about the ICE Gestapo and about Gavin Newsom's hilarious social media blasts - as long as Putin doesn't do anything rash in the meantime. 

TTFN.