AIRLINE ON THE RISE

No Place for Unions in Nationair Strategy

Contrary to the promises of the federal government and its so- called aviation experts, airline deregulation has resulted in fewer independent airlines, fewer routes, fewer communities with service, higher fares, lower safety standards and far less competition than Canada had before 1988, when deregulation legislation came into effect.

But no one has been more devastated than airline workers, for whom deregulation has meant dramatically lower wages and thousands of jobs lost. Fewer flight attendants were employed by major carriers in 1991 than in 1987. Reasonably paid, unionized positions are being replaced by lower-paid, sometimes non-union jobs. The real income of flight attendants in 1991, adjusted for inflation, was 6.1 per cent below 1987 and 13.4 per cent below 1983.

A new anti-worker breed of airline employer has appeared as a result of deregulation. During 1985-1986, work disruptions occurred at Air Canada, Air Ontario, CP Air, Eastern Provincial, Pacific Western and Nordair. All these strikes and lockouts were fought, not to win gains for employees, but to defeat concessions demanded by employers seeking to gain a better position for the official start of deregulation.

The persistence of this hard-nosed corporate attitude can be seen at Nationair, where 450 flight attendants were locked out on November 19, 1991.

Nationair's majority owner is Robert Obadia, a former executive with now-defunct Quebecair and, between 1980 and 1984, a consultant to Transport Canada helping to develop the domestic airline deregulation policy now in place. Obadia's airline began operations in December 1984 as a charter carrier.

Using government loans (including funds for job creation and training) and taking full advantage of market opportunities as they appeared, Nationair quickly became Canada's third largest airline. Buttressed by a $35-million, three-year contract with the Department of National Defence to ferry Canadian troops to Germany, Nationair is now poised to become the designated "competitor" to the merged Air Canada-Canadian carrier.

Nation air's corporate performance has been impressive. Between 1985 (its first full year of operation) and 1988, Nationair's operating revenues tripled, and the airline reported substantial profits in 1986, 1987 and 1988. With the lifting of government restrictions on the payment of dividends (as a condition of government assistance) in late 1986, Nationair has paid sizeable dividends to Obadia and its other shareholders in each year since 1987, even when reporting a loss in 1989.

Unions have little place in Nationair's deregulation-inspired "cheap labour" strategy. The Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) was the first union at Nationair. Obadia fought the union from the beginning. Seventeen flight attendants were fired during the organizing drive in 1986 but were reinstated by the Canadian Labour Relations Board. A first contract was achieved, but only under intense public pressure and the threat of a government imposed first agreement.

In September 1991, Nationair laid off nearly 200 flight attendants as negotiations neared a crucial stage for a second agreement. In November, the union was invited to meet for negotiations by the government conciliator, only to be informed by the company that it was locked out.

Long before negotiations broke down, Nationair was training replacements at an estimated cost of $200,000. On the first day of its lockout, private security goons were hired at a cost of $35,000 per month. In the absence of federal anti-scab legislation, these goons harassed, assaulted and intimidated picketers. Nation air's chief of security was charged with assault after punching a locked-out flight attendant. One scab was arrested for pulling a shotgun on picketers in Mirabel Airport.

The Canadian Labour Congress launched a national consumer boycott of the airline during the lockout. The boycott attracted international support from affiliated unions of the International Transport Workers' Federation.

In late September, ten months after the lockout began, a government-appointed mediator proposed an "uncommon" back-to- work arrangement, in which the airline ends its lockout for six months and unionized employees return under the conditions of the old contract. In return, the union would suspend its boycott campaign. Negotiations could then resume with the mediator's assistance.

The union narrowly accepted this proposal. Nationair rejected it, insisting that any returning employees have to work under some of the rules imposed on the scabs during the lockout. At publication, the union has asked Labour Canada to initiate an official inquiry into the lockout.

Aviation unions such as CUPE and the Canadian Auto Workers are pressing the Tories for re-regulation, without which the only winners will be private investors speculating on corporate take- overs. The losers will be airline workers, Canadian communities and the future of the Canadian aviation industry.

Richard Gallagher