CUPE, Canada’s largest union, is warning the federal Liberals against moving on proposals to curb the Charter-protected right to strike and further tilt the balance of power toward major corporations and employers.
While CUPE remains open to discussing ways to improve labour relations and preventing conflicts, CUPE National President Mark Hancock says the changes – proposed in a discussion paper as part of a hasty federal consultation on reforming the labour code – seem more geared toward taking rights away from everyday people in order to make life easier for Bay Street.
“When governments erode the balance of power by weakening the right to strike, all Canadians lose,” said Hancock. “We are not going to build a stronger Canada by Americanizing our labour laws and throwing workers’ rights out the window.”
Hancock pointed to evidence in Canada and around the world showing that jurisdictions that protect collective bargaining and the right to strike have better outcomes when it comes to labour peace and avoiding labour stoppages.
CUPE National Secretary-Treasurer Candace Rennick said the timing of the Liberal government’s reported plans is especially alarming given the recent international ruling affirming that the right to strike is a protected right under international law.
“The International Court of Justice has just reaffirmed that the right to strike is protected under ILO Convention 87,” said Rennick. “Canada signed Convention 87 and Canada is bound by it. So why, at the exact moment the international community is strengthening protections for workers, is this government moving in the opposite direction?”
Rennick said governments that undermine bargaining rights inevitably create more instability, not less.
“You cannot legislate labour peace by stripping workers of their constitutional rights and their leverage at the bargaining table,” Rennick said. “History has shown us that when governments interfere in free collective bargaining, they poison labour relations and create deeper conflict.”
CUPE also warned that attacks on strike rights are attacks on democracy and the Charter itself.
“The labour movement fought for these rights. Workers were jailed for these rights. Some workers died for these rights,” said Hancock. “Mark my words: we will not stand idly by if the government attempts to dismantle rights that generations of us fought and sacrificed to win.”