Nomadesc in Colombia expresses solidarity with CUPE and Air Canada flight attendants

Published by Brent Patterson on September 4, 2025 November 5, 2025

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The Peace Brigades International accompanied Association for Social Research and Action (Nomadesc) in Colombia has expressed its solidarity with the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE).

Nomadesc posted on social media: “From Colombia, we send a message of recognition and solidarity to CUPE SCFP and Air Canada flight attendants for their bravery and strength in defending workers’ rights.”

Photo: PBI-Colombia accompanied Nomadesc at the General Assembly of the Buenaventura Civic Strike Social Movement, August 23, 2025.

Timeline

On August 5, CUPE posted: “The Air Canada Component of CUPE … says its members have voted 99.7% in favour of strike action, if necessary. The vote reflects the deep frustration of flight attendants after months of negotiations without result, due to the airline’s refusal to fairly negotiate on key issues like unpaid work, work rules, and poverty-level wages.”

By August 13, CUPE stated: “The Air Canada Component of CUPE has issued a 72-hour strike notice to Air Canada after the airline refused to recognize that flight attendants should be paid for all their time on the job. Air Canada responded by issuing a 72-hour lockout notice.”

The flight attendant strike began on the morning of August 16.

On that day, CUPE commented: “Air Canada asked the government to crush underpaid flight attendants’ Charter rights, and Jobs Minister Patty Hajdu only waited a few hours to deliver. The Liberal government has invoked Section 107 of the Canada Labour Code to end a strike by Air Canada flight attendants fighting to end unpaid work and poverty wages.”

On August 17, CUPE indicated its members would remain on strike.

In a decision released the morning of August 18, the Canada Industrial Relations Board (CIRB) said the union’s defiance of a back-to-work order over the weekend was “unlawful.”

That same day, CUPE president Mark Hancock stated: “We will not be returning to the skies this afternoon. If it means folks like me going to jail, then so be it. If it means our union being fined, then so be it. …None of us want to be in defiance of the law. Our members want a solution here. But that solution has to be found at a bargaining table.”

On August 19, a tentative agreement was reached between CUPE members and Air Canada.

On that day, CUPE commented: “Flight attendants at Air Canada and Air Canada Rouge have reached a tentative agreement, achieving transformational change for our industry after a historic fight to affirm our Charter rights. We have reclaimed our voice and our power. When our rights were taken away, we stood strong, we fought back — and we secured a tentative agreement that our members can vote on.”

We will find out on September 6 whether Air Canada flight attendants will accept the wage offer portion of the agreement reached on August 19.

CUPE international solidarity

This past week, CUPE president Mark Hancock stated:

“We’re a Canadian union, but we take a lot of interest in what is happening globally. I visited Colombia last year and I’ve been down there twice meeting with workers, meeting with peace activists and different groups, and when it comes to what’s happening in Palestine right now and the genocide in Gaza, it’s our moral obligation to speak out on that and while [Canadian prime minister Mark] Carney has taken some steps, I would say he has been dragged kicking and screaming all the way to take the steps that he has. And governments all across the globe should be demanding that that genocide stop. And part of the reason that we have become so entrenched in our position is that workers have been killed on the ground in Gaza. Workers that we would represent here in Canada. So, folks like health care workers, or power workers, or ambulance paramedics, a variety, and they’ve been targeted. Journalists as well. I know Unifor’s convention is on right now and they’re talking about how they’re supporting journalists on the ground in Gaza and Palestine. So, it’s an important position for us.”

Similarly, Nomadesc recently stated: “From Cali, city of resistance, from the southwestern region of Colombia that has experienced genocide at the hands of Álvaro Uribe Vélez and his subordinate Iván Duque Márquez, we reject the genocide in Palestine and join the voices around the world that are rising up to demand an end to the genocide.”

We additionally highlight that Front Line Defenders (the International Foundation for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders) has documented the killing of at least 31 Palestinian human rights defenders in 2023 and 2024.

They further note that “those defending the right to health and the right to life as doctors, nurses, or ambulance workers, those exposing and documenting war crimes as journalists, and those providing humanitarian support as volunteers or employees of aid agencies were all specifically targeted by Israeli bombs or guns.”

Accompaniment

The International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) has documented: “Between 2023 and 2024, 11 trade unionists were assassinated, resulting in Colombia retaining its reputation as the deadliest country in the world for trade unionists.”

Peace Brigades International has accompanied Nomadesc since 2011 and its president Berenice Celeita since 1999.

CUPE has also had a longstanding relationship with Nomadesc.

In a November 2018 interview, Celeita told CUPE: “I am convinced that I am alive today because of the actions of solidarity – whether it’s the letter writing and support from Canadian unions, or the accompaniment that we get by the Peace Brigades that come to support us. Without those I would not be alive, and there’s a kind of preventative solidarity that can take place – having that presence keeps bad things from happening – but also a transformative solidarity from being there, when people come to Colombia.”