OTTAWA
Canadian labour leaders are warning that unions could trigger a nationwide job action if Ottawa passes a contentious suite of proposed changes to the Canada Labour Code.
Canadian Labour Congress president Bea Bruske said Thursday that Canada’s unions are setting up a “war room” to mount a joint defence if Ottawa uses the proposed powers to force workers off the picket line.
“If this bill moves forward without amendments that protect the right to strike, no union facing government intervention will be left to fight on its own,” Bruske said.
The Liberal government’s Bill C-39 includes language that would clarify a minister’s power to use Section 107 of the labour code to order a business under federal jurisdiction to resume operations, or put parties into binding arbitration.
The government has to go through a series of steps before that point, including determining that the work stoppage is affecting the national interest.
Union leaders argue that spelling out a minister’s power to quash a work stoppage amounts to an attack on the right to strike that would weaken workers’ bargaining power.
Asked whether a collective response could lead to a general strike, Bruske said the decision to strike is up to the local union membership.
“The rest of the labour movement has said we will step up in every single way that you need us to, whether it’s resources, whether it is financial, whether its taking actions. And it could cumulate to a day of action, 100 per cent it could cumulate to that,” she said.
Bruske made those comments flanked by dozens of union leaders at a Canadian Labour Congress summit in Ottawa on Thursday.
Jobs Minister Patty Hajdu defended Bill C-39 last week at a special committee struck to study the legislation.
Hajdu argued the bill strengthens the right to strike by removing the ability to use Section 107 before a labour disruption.
“Protecting workers and protecting the national interest go hand in hand,” Hajdu said.
In a statement sent to The Canadian Press on Thursday, Hajdu’s office said the deadline for parties to propose amendments to the bill is Nov. 4.
“We respect the committee’s independent work and the parliamentary process. It would be premature to comment on potential amendments before they have been formally submitted, debated and considered by the committee,” the statement says.
Hajdu’s office also repeated the government’s claim that Bill C-39 does not provide the minister new powers, and instead puts guardrails around the use of Section 107.
The Canadian Labour Congress has proposed amendments that would require a government to make its case before Parliament if it seeks to end a legal strike.
Bruske said union leaders are reaching out to MPs and senators in an attempt to get their preferred amendments on the table.
She added that while Hajdu has been receptive to labour’s concerns, she suggested other decision-makers in the Liberal government might not be open to significant changes.
“I’m not sure that this government, in this moment, is willing to budge,” Bruske said.
The federal government is proposing the changes as part of a broader piece of legislation that looks to streamline project approvals and offer more certainty to businesses and investors.
Bruske warned that the government is risking deeper labour acrimony, rather than industrial peace, in its approach to collective bargaining.
Years spent fighting unions in court won’t help secure Prime Minister Mark Carney’s aggressive infrastructure agenda, she suggested.
This story was written by the e2gold.ca newsroom from reporting by BNN Bloomberg and Castanet. Quotes are checked word for word against that reporting.