2014.02.18
Conservatives ditch anti-democratic voting rules
in legislative attack on unions
The Harper government has backed off anti-democratic voting rules contained in a backbencher’s bill, but it is pressing ahead with its latest attack on unions.
Bill C-525, intended to make it harder for federally regulated workers to organize, would still impose a forced vote even in situations where a majority of employees sign union cards, which currently brings automatic certification. The bill initially stipulated that anyone who didn’t cast a ballot would be counted as having voted against the union.
Witnesses testifying at a parliamentary committee studying the bill were unanimous in rejecting the provision as anti-democratic. Liberal and NDP members of the Conservative-dominated committee have been fiercely opposed to the bill itself, which would amend three federal labour laws and affect more than a million workers.
Nova Scotia Liberal MP Rodger Cuzner, noting that the bill’s sponsor, Alberta Conservative MP Blaine Caulkins, had claimed in the House there was a “mountain of complaints” about union coercion of workers during certification campaigns, said testimony by the chair of the Canada Industrial Relations Board shot down that assertion.
The chair said “there were, in fact, only two founded complaints of Unfair Labour Practices by unions in the last 10 years out of 4,000 decisions rendered by the CIRB.”
Quebec MP Alexandre Boulerice said the NDP supports the card-based union accreditation system as the “simplest and most effective method of organizing workers ... Studies clearly show cards are the best way of preventing employer intimidation, blackmail and threats ...”
The Public Service Alliance of Canada, pointing to other CIRB testimony that representation votes are now called in only about 20 per cent of cases under the Canada Labour Code, said the board’s workload would quintuple, “requiring more staff and financial resources” at a time when budgets are frozen.
The bill now goes back to the House and eventually on to the Senate.