Over the August long weekend, roughly 250,000 WestJet passengers had their flights cancelled when the airline’s flight attendants walked out over pay, including compensation for ground duties performed before takeoff and after landing.

Less than a year earlier, an Air Canada strike grounded the country’s largest carrier for about 60 hours. The two disputes were different in their details, but both exposed how quickly a strike at a major airline can disrupt the wider air-travel system.

I’ve spent years studying how airlines and their unions collide, and in Canada the pattern is becoming familiar. Once an airline strike begins, there is little institutional middle ground between widespread disruption and government intervention. Other countries show this is not the only way to manage a strike.

Read more: Flight attendants have gone 50 years without ground pay — here’s the reason behind it

Canada’s all-or-nothing approach

Once an airline strike begins, Canada offers little institutional middle ground. Either the walkout proceeds and strands hundreds of thousands of travellers at the height of the season, or the federal government intervenes to bring the dispute to an end.

Employers and unions can negotiate, mediate or settle without government intervention, as WestJet and its flight attendants ultimately did. The problem arises when bargaining fails and a strike continues. Canada has few mechanisms for allowing a lawful strike to proceed while maintaining a predictable floor of air service.

That leaves the government facing a difficult choice. It can allow the disruption to continue, with costs for passengers,........

© The Conversation