Unions Slam Liberals’ Federal Labour Code Changes - thetyee.ca

Listen to this article 8 min Canada’s biggest labour organization is warning the federal Liberals’ new development bill will further undermine Canadians’ charter-protected right to strike. ANNOUNCEMENTS, EVENTS & MORE FROM TYEE AND SELECT PARTNERS Take a Trip with Us: VIFF’s Documentary Series Spans the Globe ‘Insights’ takes audiences far and wide with stories of struggle, triumph and renewal. On Monday, the Liberals tabled a piece of sweeping legislation that promises to speed up construction of federally regulated projects. It included changes to the Canada Labour Code aimed at cutting down on disruptions from labour disputes in federally regulated industries, like airlines, ports and railways. It would also change a little-known part of the code called Section 107, a vaguely worded piece of legislation the government has started using to try and end several high-profile strikes, including one in 2023 that shut down Vancouver’s ports and one last year by Air Canada flight attendants. Ultimately the changes would explicitly codify the labour minister’s ability to end a strike or lockout and require both sides to head to special mediation before Ottawa can use the section to end a strike. Federal Jobs Minister Patty Hajdu told The Tyee the changes add guardrails to Ottawa’s power to end strikes. “The goal is to help them get to the deal themselves and stop that cycle of strike, lockout, government intervention, which then worsens the muscles of the two parties to actually get a deal,” Hajdu said. But labour lawyer Mark Rowlinson said the changes gave the government “unprecedented” power to end strikes. He joined the Canadian Labour Congress in a press conference today. “It provides the complete and unlimited discretion to the federal minister to decide who gets to strike and who does not,” Rowlinson said. “Any claim by this government that somehow they have put guardrails on Section 107 is just nonsense.” Meanwhile, Canadian Labour Congress president Bea Bruske said Section 107 was never intended to give the government power to end strikes or lockouts, and that the new legislation will enshrine a misinterpretation of the law into the labour code. “Make no mistake, this is an attack on the workers’ rights to be able to meaningfully get to the bargaining table and to leverage the only power that they have, which is to withdraw their labour,” Bruske said. The Canadian Labour congress, which represents more than three million unionized…