Air Canada is facing tough criticism from labour lawyers after the airline accused CUPE of negotiating in bad faith and announced it was seeking compensation from the union.
Air Canada made a formal complaint Thursday to the Canada Industrial Relations Board that CUPE -- the union that represents the airline's 6,800 flight attendants -- had not done enough to encourage its members to ratify a pair of tentative deals that were rejected in recent months.
But labour lawyer Howard Levitt said Air Canada is well aware that it is highly unlikely to win any compensation.
"The employer right now is jockeying for a position before the labour board," Levitt told CTV's Canada AM during a telephone interview on Friday morning.
"They have no realistic hope of getting damages from the board, after all the union ultimately recommended settlement, it was rejected by its membership."
Paul Cavalluzzo, another leading labour lawyer, said the move by Air Canada could actually trigger accusations of unfair labour practices against the employer.
Cavalluzzo said the company's filing to the Canada Industrial Labour Board appears to violate the Canada Labour Code, which bars employers from interfering in the internal affairs of a union.
"Air Canada is violating the code itself by filing the complaint because in my view its complaint raises internal union issues which is certainly not the business of the employer," he told The Canadian Press.
He agreed with Levitt that it is unlikely the labour board will award damages to the employer.
The CIRB is already tasked with ruling on whether the work done by Air Canada attendants constitutes an essential service, after Labour Minister Lisa Raitt made a referral to the board on the matter.
Raitt also asked the board to consider if it should impose a settlement between the flight attendants and their employer, or whether the dispute should be sent to binding arbitration.
The referral to the CIRB blocked a planned strike by the flight attendants, which was set to take effect on Thursday.
A veteran Air Canada flight attendant who spoke to Canada AM on Friday morning said the government had long made it clear that it would not allow the airline staff to strike.
In her mind, Ottawa's involvement amounted to unnecessary meddling that had a negative effect on the negotiations between Air Canada and its flight attendants.
"I think that if the process had been allowed to unfold in the normal legal way, we probably would have had a good agreement by now without that threat hanging over our heads and we probably all would be done with this," said the flight attendant, who did not want to be publicly identified.
Levitt said Ottawa's move to put the dispute in the hands of the CIRB follows a pattern the government has established in dealing with prior labour issues.
Most have gone to either the labour board or to arbitration, a strategy that Levitt said ultimately gives unions the upper hand.
"It's short-sighted, I think, because at the end of the day, interest arbitrators put us in the situation that Canada's in right now with high public sector agreements," Levitt said.
"Interest arbitrators generally award much greater increases in benefits and wages than you get in negotiations, so I think at the end of the day it benefits the union, not otherwise."
With files from The Canadian Press
