Jobs and Families Minister Patty Hajdu said that people must understand what the proposed Bill C-39, in terms of the labour component, is and what it isn’t, following a rally on Friday outside her constituency office in Thunder Bay.
The rally called on the federal government to repeal Bill C-39’s Section 107 of the Canada Labour Code.
The protesters are concerned that Section 107 allows the government to intervene in labour disputes, force striking workers back to work, and impose binding arbitration.
“There’s lots of confusion out there in terms of what this bill does,” Hajdu said.
“For 50 years, the Canada Labour Code has had a component of the code called Section 107 that gives the minister the ability to refer things to the Canadian Industrial Relations Board, and it’s been utilized several times in the last three or four years. In fact, what unions said to us was that they felt, in its current unamended form, that it’s really too broad and not transparent enough, and that ministers needed to have better transparency if and when they use that tool.”
She said the government listened and worked with federally regulated labour employers through a tripartite council.
“What we heard was, if you’re going to keep Section 107, you need to fetter the power of the minister because the minister right now under the code has full authority to use that tool and end labour disputes. In fact, the minister can try to prevent labour disputes, and it has been used in a way to prevent the constitutional right to strike,” she said.
“We took that very seriously, and throughout the amendments, we’ve affirmed that unions have the constitutional right to strike.”
She added that if the minister contemplates using Section 107, it must be used after a labour disruption has begun.
“No more trying to prevent a strike from occurring,” she said.
Hajdu added that, secondly, it can only be used if two things exist.
“One, a special mediator’s report that is done in the end stages of a negotiation that by then has become public, that demonstrates that the Industrial Relations Board where the negotiations are breaking down, and that public report must be there,” she explained.
“Secondly, the minister needs to consider the national economic interests, social interests, and of course the constitutional right to strike.”
Hajdu noted that they put guardrails around the use of Section 107 and strengthened organized labour’s right to strike if that is what happens at the end of their labour negotiations.
