|
Ontario Workers Demand Anti-Worker
Legislation Be Scrapped Construction Workers Defend Their Right to OrganizeUnder the hoax of opening Ontario for business and eliminating red tape, the Ontario Ford government tabled Bill 66, the Restoring Ontario's Competitiveness Act, 2018, on December 6, 2018. The bill amends 18 existing laws and is a massive attack on the workers and people of Ontario in all aspects of their life.[1] This means the government is preparing to massively de-unionize construction workers and construction work in public institutions and terminate legally binding collective agreements without the consent or permission of the workers involved. This is a frontal attack on the wages and working conditions of construction workers, on their right to organize and be members of a collective, and their right to safe and healthy working conditions that have the general approval of construction workers and their collectives. This comes at a time when the rates of fatalities and injuries in Ontario's construction sector continue to rise. Workers across Ontario are denouncing this attack as well as Bill 66 as a whole. A number of unions have issued statements highlighting the attack against construction workers.
Who Said WhatThe Carpenters' District Council of Ontario (CDCO) writes in its statement dated December 11, 2018: "Bill 66 is supposed to be the government's latest attempt to make Ontario more competitive but, when it comes to construction, Premier Ford has apparently decided to do this by attacking ordinary workers. Parts of this bill will eliminate construction bargaining rights and existing, long standing, collective agreements covering construction workers and various public sector employers, including municipalities, school boards, hospitals, universities and alike. In short, the ability of construction workers working for these types of employers to freely bargain collective agreements for their construction work will be made unlawful." "Our union has had productive relationships with these types of employers, such as the City of Toronto, which in many cases go back decades, and which are designed to ensure that the employers get real value for money while construction workers can make a fair and honest living. Apparently, those types of relationships are not something that this Premier wants to see continue," said Mike Yorke, President and Director of Public Affairs of the CDCO. "This government is now attacking all construction workers and their basic rights. Our Union for one intends to fight for our members and their rights in every way we can. The Supreme Court of Canada has made clear that the right to collective bargaining is protected by the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and if we have to go all the way to the Supreme Court in Ottawa to make Premier Ford's government recognize this, then that is exactly what we are going to do," said Tony Iannuzzi, the leader of the Carpenters' Union in Ontario. The Toronto and York Region Labour Council, which has many construction unions in Toronto as affiliates, writes in an open letter to the Ontario Premier from its President John Cartwright sent January 8: "As one of the final acts of 2018, your Conservative government introduced legislation that would rip up all construction union agreements with cities, school boards, universities and hospitals. This is nothing short of a full-scale attack on workers' rights in this province -- and something none of you talked about during the election campaign. "In Toronto that will decimate bargaining rights of nearly all of the union trades, most of which have been in existence for a century or more. To decide that you have the authority to simply take away those agreements with a stroke of a pen is breath-taking. The Supreme Court has overturned similar anti-union legislation in recent years because, unlike your government, it recognizes that the Charter protects basic labour rights. Labour rights are fundamental to a just society. "Toronto has the most productive construction workforce in North America -- the product of many generations of immigration combined with a deep commitment to apprenticeship and skills training. Union training centres have an enviable record of success in apprenticeship graduation and skills upgrading through life-long learning. Union members and unionized contractors contribute financially to ensure that these crucial skills are passed on to the next generation. And the safety record in union construction is dramatically superior to the non-union sector. "There are many other aspects of the bill that are deeply flawed and should also be withdrawn. I urge you to abandon Bill 66 in its entirety." The Provincial Building and Construction Trades Council of Ontario (PBCTCO) writes in its December 12 statement: "The bill's changes will reduce protection for workers and consumers, put our environment at risk and weaken labour standards," said Patrick Dillon, the Business Manager of the Council. "Premier Ford claims he's ‘for the people' but these proposed changes will benefit corporate Ontario instead of hard working Ontarians. "Among the most egregious aspect of the bill is the government's massive intrusion in free collective bargaining," Dillon pointed out. "The intrusion in free collective bargaining is a sign of a government with a clear autocratic streak. This bill was introduced without consultation with the workers and unions affected by its draconian effect. Needless to say, this government did not advise the people of its union-bashing policies during the election campaign." The Ontario Federation of Labour writes in a December 6 statement: "The bill deems public entities, like municipalities, hospitals, universities and schools as ‘non-construction employers,' opening the door for non-union shops in the construction trades to bid on and build public infrastructure projects. "Unionized construction trades are leaders in health and safety. By opening public construction projects to non-union shops, Ford is putting worker safety at greater risk and trampling collective bargaining agreements," said OFL President Chris Buckley. "By reducing safety standards to satisfy big business, the government is playing with the lives of Ontarians. When there are too many children at a private daycare, children are unnecessarily put in harm's way. When guardrails are not required, workplace accidents kill workers. With this bill the government that claims to be ‘for the people' is once again putting the almighty dollar ahead of the lives of Ontarians."
Note1. For more information about Bill 66, read "The Human Toll of the Ford Government's ‘Job-Killing Red Tape' Campaign," Pierre Chénier, TML Weekly, January 26, 2019.
This article was published in Article Link:   Website: www.cpcml.ca Email: editor@cpcml.ca |
One of the most
salient
features of the bill is the
attack on construction workers. Schedule 9 of the bill
amends the Labour
Relations
Act, 1995 to deem municipalities and certain local
boards, school boards, hospitals, colleges, universities and
public
bodies to be non-construction employers. This means the trade
unions
currently representing employees of those agencies and
institutions,
who are now or may be employed in the construction industry, no
longer
represent them. Any collective agreement binding the employer and
the
trade union members ceases to apply in so far as it applies to
the
construction industry.