Legislation and the Life of Canadian Labour

Labour is under-seige and Canadian labour is no different. In recent weeks, labour has been ordered back to work by national legislation. Both Air Canada and Canada Post workers have been ordered back to work without consideration for the collective bargaining process. More than this, though, the imposed settlements have been based on the bias position of the management developed compensation packages rather than the labour position. Instead of using an arbitrator to determine the agreement provisions, the national government has forced a management proposed wage scale package on the employees.


It seems clear that the message being conveyed by neoliberal regimes is that the value of staff labour is only as important as the management labour determines. Management can define it's own compensation package but labour is not permitted to negotiate its own collective compensation package. Government and business have made the decision to frame labour agreements within a vacuum, a vacuum of value.


Instead of accepting back to work legislation, labour needs to consider alternative measures to address the pressure. My own initial solution would be to have all staff to quit. Government cannot order people to accept jobs. There is risk, though. While the organizations would not be able to operate, the longer term could be more problematic. Alternatively, organized labour could use the time after the forced labour agreement to stay focussed on public relations with the rest of the country.


The solution is not an easy one because it is not just an agreement; it is people's lives and livelihood. Organized labour needs to be more focussed on cooperative relations with one another and to find a united front to address the issues of labour-management contract negotiations. A key facet to success to ensure that labour value and the need to have freedom to negotiate is continually publicized.