OTTAWA – Faster and more focused collective bargaining procedures, rather than limits on the right to strike or lock out, are the way to reduce costly labor disruptions in such sensitive areas as grain movement, a federal advisory panel has concluded.
And at least one grain industry executive agrees.
“I see opportunities here to move the process along more quickly and that would find favor in the grain industry,” said Mike Roberts, director of human resources for Saskatchewan Wheat Pool.
Consultation with industry
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Federal labor minister Alfonso Gagliano said last week he will take the panel’s proposals to interested industry and labor groups for consultations in April before deciding on what proposals to take to Parliament.
The panel, headed by Edmonton lawyer Andrew Sims and appointed to consider changes to the Canada Labor Code, suggested several ways to speed up the bargaining process. Notices of bargaining, conciliation and mediation periods could be shortened and different employers who bargain with the same union could join forces to limit the number of potential work stoppages because of different contracts.
The Sims report, presented to Gagliano and released Feb. 13, opposed essential services legislation or imposed settlements which leave issues unresolved.
Instead, it suggested that when a dispute threatens public and third party interests, a Public Interest Panel could be appointed to assess and advise on the potential damage.
Sims told a news conference limits or bans on the right to strike or lock out never resolve the issue.
In past years, Parliament has acted often to force an end to strikes or lockouts that were tying up grain movement.
Forced settlements “leave issues that keep festering,” he said. “The imposed settlements placate the issues for awhile but they keep coming back, like the cat. …the cat came back, thought he was a goner.”
Sims said the best answer is a labor code which puts the emphasis on helping both sides in a dispute reach their own balanced settlement.
“Grain is often used as a trump card,” he said. If there are rail or port issues in dispute, disruption of grain movement usually succeeds in increasing political pressure for a settlement.
He said a public interest panel would help expose that.
Monitor replacement workers
One of the panel’s most potentially controversial recommendations is that while there would be no blanket ban on employer use of replacement workers, their use should be monitored to make sure they are not being hired to undermine the union.
Rodrigue Blouin, a Quebec labor specialist, filed a minority report calling for a ban on replacement workers.
Sims, speaking for the majority, said there is evidence that companies sometimes hire replacement workers to try to break the union, rather than to speed up a settlement.
