SASKATOON – A report into grain industry disputes between management and labor at Canada’s West Coast ports recommends the minister of labor be given more authority to intervene in disputes that disrupt grain shipments.
Representatives from both employers and unions decried the suggestion, saying the collective bargaining process should be left to run its course.
At the same time, one farm group official said the report didn’t go further and declare grain handling an essential service, with a complete ban on strikes or lockouts.
“They hold producers in the Prairies hostage and we can do nothing about it,” said Sinclair Harrison, president of the Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities.
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While the report by a special commission of inquiry rejected the essential service designation, it suggested the minister of labor be given the power to order an end to a strike or lockout and to dictate some of the terms of the collective agreement being negotiated.
“It appears there will be more rather than less political involvement and interference with the bargaining process if the recommendations are adopted,” said Hugh Wagner of the Grain Services Union, an affiliate of the International Longshoremen’s and Warehousemen’s Union.
It’s one thing for government to pass legislation ending a work stoppage, after a public debate in the House of Commons, said Wagner, “but when the minister has that much independent authority, I worry.”
Limited government involvement
Mike Roberts, director of human resources for Saskatchewan Wheat Pool, said government should only get involved in those “rare cases” in which a labor dispute is clearly harming the national interest.
In their 300-page report, commissioners Hugh Jamieson and Bruce Greyell paint a grim picture of labor relations at the West Coast.
Their 15 recommendations include amalgamating a number of grain handling unions and employers’ groups into one large bargaining unit, removing longshoremen from grain terminals and restricting picketing to the employer directly involved in a dispute.
The recommendations will be referred to a task force studying changes to the Canada Labor Code.
