The House of Commons is expected to give final approval this week to Canada Labor Code amendments that will guarantee grain at west coast ports cannot be grounded by third-party strikes.
The Senate is expected to approve it next month and the government is touting it as a major policy advance for prairie grain farmers.
“From now on, all grain that is brought to the dockside will have to be moved, regardless of work stoppages in other port activities,” labor minister Alfonso Gagliano told the Commons last week during final reading debate. “This amendment is very important to Canada … The livelihoods of over 130,000 farmers and their families depend on our reputation as a reliable supplier and exporter.”
Read Also
Government, industry seek canola tariff resolution
Governments and industry continue to discuss how best to deal with Chinese tariffs on Canadian agricultural products, particularly canola.
Reform MPs who represent many of those grain farmers were not buying it.
They said they will vote against the legislation this week because it does not make sure that all commodities keep moving all the time. Reform is advocating final-offer arbitration as a way to avoid strikes.
Reform MPs also echoed complaints from companies and employers in the commodities business that restrictions on an employer’s ability to use replacement workers during a strike or a lockout are unfair and too pro-union.
Vegreville, Alta. Reform MP Leon Benoit said the designation of grain as a commodity with special protection from third-party disruption was important, but it is offset in the bill.
“They have counterbalanced that move, which is positive, with a negative move which would outlaw the use and prevent the use … of replacement workers,” he said.
Not ban replacement workers
The legislation would not ban replacement workers, but makes it an unfair labor practice if replacement workers are used to “undermine the ability of unions to represent their members.”
Gagliano told the House that employer fears this would lead to an effective ban on replacement workers are wrong. Every use of replacement workers to keep a company operating would not be deemed an undermining of the union.
The Montreal Liberal MP also dismissed Reform arguments that final-offer arbitration is the best way to settle disputes and avoid strikes.
“I do not favor this approach, nor do the vast majority of federally regulated employers, nor do the unions,” said Gagliano.
He said a federal task force study concluded final-offer selection, in which each side makes an offer and an arbitrator chooses one or the other, is too blunt an instrument.
“It pointed out that final-offer selection is not an effective, appropriate dispute resolution mechanism for complex disputes.”
