Canada

I'm flying out later this week. First big trip since the start of COVID, and the focus of the trip is the wedding of a dear friend.

Timing and price led us to Air Canada over Westjet this time, but it's a crapshoot; a day later and we might have booked Westjet, in which case we'd be royally fucked right now.

I still support the mechanics on this one. Companies will ALWAYS bargain in bad faith, if they have the opportunity; and getting government arbitration has become the latest version of bad faith bargaining.

This strike may be truly illegal. It will definitely inconvenience a lot of people. It may, over time, lead to the downfall of Westjet (I have cheap headphones here from Canada 3000, Canadian, and a few others - it can happen!).

I don't fucking care.

The mechanics didn't cause this shitshow, they only chose when to act against the shitshow created by the billionaires. This is the fault of Alexis van Hoensbroech and his board of directors. If you miss a flight or a trip of a lifetime because of the strike, remember that: Ten executives at Westjet who EACH make more annually than a mechanic will see in his lifetime have decided not to let those mechanics keep up with inflation.

Totally support the workers here. Westjet is a shitty company. Won’t be flying them in the future.

The willingness to try and legislate away strikes is really problematic...

There is zero incentive for businesses to negotiate in goods faith if they know that the government will just step in to force workers to accept a worse deal than they could get by striking. It's time for the workers to take back the power of collective action. If a company can't pay its workers a fair wage or should not be allowed to operate by paying its workers an unfair wage.

The feds should not be supporting private business by harming the worker.