Enjoy Reading Week

Just to remind those who may not be regular full-time students, this is Reading Week, so I have not posted a new lecture.  Lecture 5 will be posted next Monday.

Try to follow along with the news stories (or my main blog) on the developments happening in relation to the collective bargaining situation at Air Canada, and the government’s reaction.

The move by the Government to intervene in bargaining on behalf of a private corporation performing a non-essential service (not medical, police, fire) is extremely unusual and unorthodox.  It may be having the effect of encouraging bargaining disputes.  If you were an Air Canada worker and you are unhappy with your employer, there is little risk in refusing the employers’ offers and threatening to strike, since you know you will never actually have to strike.  In the end, the Government’s model is to send all disputes to an arbitrator, who will then have to choose either the union’s proposed collective agreement or the employers’ proposed agreement.  I’m not sure this actually helps Air Canada, but the government is mostly concerned with winning brownie points with the voters who don’t like unions.

DO you have any thoughts or questions about what is going on?