‘Stay tuned’: Canada’s unions considering legal action to protect right to strike

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By adding these changes, the bill is essentially circumventing the existing court challenges on the use of Section 107, said Mark Rowlinson, a lawyer at Goldblatt Partners LLP invited by the Canadian Labour Congress to speak to the media.

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“Such legislation is the clearest possible violation, not only the Canadian Constitution but the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms,” he said of Bill C-39.

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Rowlinson said the bill offers a clear roadmap for employers who want to avoid a strike: persuade the minister to appoint a mediator, get a report indicating the parties are too far apart to reach an agreement and then quash a strike in the “national interest.”

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“It provides the complete and unlimited discretion to the federal minister to decide who gets to go on strike, and who does not,” he said.

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Rowlinson also said the new bill completely removes the need for any government to introduce, debate and pass back-to-work legislation in the House of Commons.

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“In a democratic society, respectfully, it is the workers who should get to decide whether or not they want to go out on strike, and maybe it is the legislature that should have to debate back-to-work legislation,” he said.

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“It should not be entirely within the discretion of the minister.”

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Bruske said there are important measures in Bill C-39 that workers and unions have long fought for, including protections against contract-flipping and wage theft, and she welcomes more funding for the Canada Industrial Relations Board to do its work.

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But she said unions are united in opposing any new restrictions on the right to strike, and are asking the government to remove powers relating to Section 107 from the bill.

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The United Steelworkers’ National Director Marty Warren echoed her comments.

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“We were clear: the right to strike is a red line. Section 107 should be repealed, not rewritten to make it easier for the government to intervene in legal strikes,” he said in a statement. “The government didn’t listen.”

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“Instead, it’s giving the labour minister extraordinary discretion to override workers’ fundamental right to strike without a vote or prior approval by Parliament.”

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Hajdu said after the introduction of Bill C-39 that any suggestion that the government is weakening the right to strike is “incorrect.”

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“In terms of workers’ rights, we’re actually strengthening their rights,” she said.

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Bruske said she is “100 per cent in opposition” to that assertion.

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National Post
calevesque@postmedia.com

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