Nationair then asked the Canadian government for financial assistance. Fortunately, the government remembered that the flight attendants were still locked out, and getting more and more vigilant, occupying government offices on Parliament Hill, and past being angry with government inaction.

The government told them that if they wanted any help whatsoever, they had to settle the lockout, and quickly.

Suddenly, after a year and a half of being left out in the cold, being told that they didn't need us, Nationair needed to bargain with us for it's survival.

After being locked out for a year and a half because the company said they couldn't afford the contract that even a mediator recommended (twice!), they agreed to almost everything in the original recommendation. Salaries in particular, where exactly what the special mediator (Judge Gold from the "Oka crisis") recommended. Kind of ironic for a company that now really had no money.

The same person (George Tchoryk) who had called us "assholes" (and worse) was now practically begging us to accept and recommend a contract to the flight attendants for acceptance.

Things even got, shall we say, a tad upbeat when mention was made that the FTQ (Fond des Travailleur du Quebec) was perhaps interested in investing in Nationair, and that perhaps sales of stock would be available to flight attendants (not that we had any money to buy them with but hey, there was no stock plan for any employee at this point) if negotiations went well. Things were looking up.

Even though most of the mediators' recommendations had been addressed (salaries), there were other items that the company was being unreasonable with. Having to share hotel rooms at layover destinations was a big one for most FA's. The pilots would never accept "doubling up" but we were expected to. This, for alot of people, reinforced the idea that the company never really took the work we do seriously. That is to say, "it doesn't matter if you get a good nights sleep in a foreign country while jet-lagged, because you're not flying the plane, you're only responsible for getting everyone out alive if something happens".

None-the-less, the contract was accepted (but not overwhelmingly), and preparations were made for our return to work.

As we had been off-line for so long, we all needed a quick re-training. About an hour into the training on the first day that we returned, we were told to take a break. The managers came back looking very sullen and announced that the company was seeking bankruptcy protection, but our training would continue.

Two days later we were told to stay at home until notified otherwise.

We never heard a word from them after that.

The company went under shortly there-after.

The law in Canada being what it is, employees are the last ones to see a cent. Most flight attendants were (and as of late in the year 2000 still) owed several hundred to several thousand dollars. Some pilots were owed several 10's of thousands of dollars (or so it was heard).

Then the scabs started calling us to find out how the union could help them get the money the company owed them.......

Then things really started to get interesting.......