Canada

At the end of 2020, workers at the Ash Grove cement plant in Joliette, Quebec, were informed that two of the four kilns would be closed, putting at least half of their jobs at risk. Despite ongoing collective bargaining collective bargaining The process of negotiating mutually acceptable terms and conditions of employment as well as regulating industrial relations between one or more workers’ representatives, trade unions, or trade union centres on the one hand and an employer, a group of employers or one or more employers’ organisations on the other.

See collective bargaining agreement
, members of the workplace union Unifor were illegally locked out of the plant on 22 May 2021. The legal lockout lockout A form of industrial action whereby an employer refuses work to its employees or temporarily shuts down operations. started on 3 June.
Despite a severe lack of cement with rising market prices and a shortage of labour, Ash Grove refuses to use a recall list of current employees, which would allow workers to access other jobs in the company. Instead, Ash Grove used labour agencies and subcontractors in a classic “union-busting” move.
Since the start of the lockout lockout A form of industrial action whereby an employer refuses work to its employees or temporarily shuts down operations. , the union has organised a series of actions to draw attention to the anti-worker practices of Ash Grove. For example, on 22 October, Unifor members, together with the Quebec Federation of Labour, held a mobilisation in solidarity with the locked-out workers. On 8 October, Unifor members demonstrated at the Port of Trois-Rivières and in July, more than a hundred Unifor members and allies responded to the union’s call for solidarity action in front of the Ash Grove cement plant in Joliette.
In response to the union mobilisation, Ash Grove management obtained a new injunction injunction A court order prohibiting or preventing a certain course of action, such as calling or continuing with a strike. limiting union actions. The employer also filed a Can$2.6 million (about US$2.1 million) management grievance for lost production and equipment breakdown and dismissed two members of Local 177, including a member of the bargaining committee.
Ash Grove cement is owned by CRH Canada, which employs 4,000 people in 100 production facilities. Worldwide, the global giant employs more than 76,000 people in over 3,000 locations in 29 countries on four continents.

In Alberta and Ontario, agricultural workers are not covered by the main laws on industrial relations industrial relations The individual and collective relations and dealings between workers and employers at the workplace, as well as the institutional interaction between unions, employers and also the government.

See social dialogue (respectively, the Labour Relations Code and the Labour Relations Act) and cannot establish or join a trade union. This exclusion leaves migrant and domestic agricultural workers without the means to defend their rights and interests in the face of blatant abuses. In Ontario, over 100,000 farm workers are pressured to work long hours, including at weekends, some even reporting that they have been working for more than six months straight without a single day off. This exclusion is contrary to ILO International Labour Organization A tripartite United Nations (UN) agency established in 1919 to promote working and living conditions. The main international body charged with developing and overseeing international labour standards.

See tripartism, ITUC Guide to international trade union rights Convention 87 and has been the subject of many comments by the ILO International Labour Organization A tripartite United Nations (UN) agency established in 1919 to promote working and living conditions. The main international body charged with developing and overseeing international labour standards.

See tripartism, ITUC Guide to international trade union rights supervisory bodies.

Employees of Gate Gourmet were shocked when their employer interrupted their lunch break to tell them to take their personal effects and vacate the premises, as they were being locked out.
Talks between the parties, which began in July, were not going well prior to the lockout lockout A form of industrial action whereby an employer refuses work to its employees or temporarily shuts down operations. . The employer was demanding several major concessions, including a five-year wage freeze, hiring only part-time and seasonal employees (no full-time), member payment of 40 per cent of group insurance costs (currently paid entirely by the employer), reduced accessibility to insurance, a cut to shift premiums, abolition of the weekend premium, fewer statutory holidays, withdrawal of vacation weeks and elimination of numerous articles in the collective agreement dealing with non-monetary issues. The employer has tabled no fewer than 145 demands, all of which involve concessions. For its part, the union had not demanded any concessions.
“The simple fact is that the employer wants to abolish our collective agreement altogether,” noted François Arseneault, president of the local Unifor union.

General support healthcare workers, licensed practical nurses and healthcare aides across Alberta went on a wildcat strike strike The most common form of industrial action, a strike is a concerted stoppage of work by employees for a limited period of time. Can assume a wide variety of forms.

See general strike, intermittent strike, rotating strike, sit-down strike, sympathy strike, wildcat strike to call on the government to hire more staff and reverse the decision announced by Health Minister Tyler Shandro earlier this month to cut 11,000 jobs, including laundry services and lab work, mostly through outsourcing outsourcing See contracting-out to third-party companies.
The Alberta Labour Relations Board has ruled that healthcare workers who walked off the job on 26 October were engaged in an illegal strike strike The most common form of industrial action, a strike is a concerted stoppage of work by employees for a limited period of time. Can assume a wide variety of forms.

See general strike, intermittent strike, rotating strike, sit-down strike, sympathy strike, wildcat strike . In the decision, the board said the workers must return to work at their scheduled shifts. The orders from the board will be filed with the Court of Queen’s Bench, meaning anyone who breaks them could face civil or criminal penalties and could be suspended or even fired from their jobs.

On 5 October, Potanicals Green Growers, a cannabis company, laid off the nine employees at the Peachland operation, including the master grower and head of security, because they were trying to form a union.
The month prior, staff had voted to apply for union certification with the United Food and Commercial Workers International union. But Potanicals told the employees and the union that staff were being laid off due to the company’s “financial circumstances”. Potanicals said the layoffs would be temporary, except for the staff who hadn’t completed their probationary periods. The company did not say when they planned on rehiring the others back. The union, meanwhile, argued it made no sense for the company to fire its master grower and head of security if it was simply a financial issue, as both positions would need to be filled again to comply with Health Canada regulations.
Ultimately, the Labour Board ruled that the company breached the Labour Relations Code by laying off the nine employees, finding that it was “motivated, at least in part, by the fact that the employees at that location had sought to be represented by a union”.

Manitoba’s Progressive Conservative government is planning substantive labour law changes that would make it easier for employers to fire striking workers; under the changes, a long-standing requirement that strikes or lockouts go to binding arbitration arbitration A means of resolving disputes outside the courts through the involvement of a neutral third party, which can either be a single arbitrator or an arbitration board. In non-binding arbitration, the disputing parties are free to reject the third party’s recommendation, whilst in binding arbitration they are bound by its decision. Compulsory arbitration denotes the process where arbitration is not voluntarily entered into by the parties, but is prescribed by law or decided by the authorities.

See conciliation, mediation would be ended. Labour leaders say the changes would prolong labour disputes and gut workers’ rights, but Premier Brian Pallister says he is simply levelling the playing field. The Labour Relations Act currently allows either a union or employer to get binding arbitration arbitration A means of resolving disputes outside the courts through the involvement of a neutral third party, which can either be a single arbitrator or an arbitration board. In non-binding arbitration, the disputing parties are free to reject the third party’s recommendation, whilst in binding arbitration they are bound by its decision. Compulsory arbitration denotes the process where arbitration is not voluntarily entered into by the parties, but is prescribed by law or decided by the authorities.

See conciliation, mediation hearings after a certain time period of stalled contract talks, a strike strike The most common form of industrial action, a strike is a concerted stoppage of work by employees for a limited period of time. Can assume a wide variety of forms.

See general strike, intermittent strike, rotating strike, sit-down strike, sympathy strike, wildcat strike or a lockout lockout A form of industrial action whereby an employer refuses work to its employees or temporarily shuts down operations. . The provision was enacted two decades ago to nudge both sides in a labour dispute labour dispute See industrial dispute to work toward a settlement. A bill before the legislature would only continue the binding arbitration arbitration A means of resolving disputes outside the courts through the involvement of a neutral third party, which can either be a single arbitrator or an arbitration board. In non-binding arbitration, the disputing parties are free to reject the third party’s recommendation, whilst in binding arbitration they are bound by its decision. Compulsory arbitration denotes the process where arbitration is not voluntarily entered into by the parties, but is prescribed by law or decided by the authorities.

See conciliation, mediation requirement for initial collective agreements when workers unionise. In reality, this change would allow talks on subsequent collective agreements to be dragged out by bad employers.
Another proposed change would affect a clause that says employers can refuse to reinstate workers due to strike strike The most common form of industrial action, a strike is a concerted stoppage of work by employees for a limited period of time. Can assume a wide variety of forms.

See general strike, intermittent strike, rotating strike, sit-down strike, sympathy strike, wildcat strike -related misconduct if the action constitutes just cause for termination and resulted in a criminal conviction. The bill proposes to remove the requirement for a criminal conviction. This would make it easy for employers to go after workers for almost any reason.

Management of Demix Béton, Canadian subsidiary of cement multinational CRH, locked out workers three hours after they went on strike strike The most common form of industrial action, a strike is a concerted stoppage of work by employees for a limited period of time. Can assume a wide variety of forms.

See general strike, intermittent strike, rotating strike, sit-down strike, sympathy strike, wildcat strike over a wage increase. The Syndicat des travailleurs de Demix Béton (St-Hubert) represents workers at the collective bargaining collective bargaining The process of negotiating mutually acceptable terms and conditions of employment as well as regulating industrial relations between one or more workers’ representatives, trade unions, or trade union centres on the one hand and an employer, a group of employers or one or more employers’ organisations on the other.

See collective bargaining agreement
negotiations. On 23 September, workers unanimously rejected the employer’s final offer and went on a 24-hour strike strike The most common form of industrial action, a strike is a concerted stoppage of work by employees for a limited period of time. Can assume a wide variety of forms.

See general strike, intermittent strike, rotating strike, sit-down strike, sympathy strike, wildcat strike .
A few hours after the strike strike The most common form of industrial action, a strike is a concerted stoppage of work by employees for a limited period of time. Can assume a wide variety of forms.

See general strike, intermittent strike, rotating strike, sit-down strike, sympathy strike, wildcat strike began, on 24 September, the employer locked out the workers. That same evening, an unlimited general strike strike The most common form of industrial action, a strike is a concerted stoppage of work by employees for a limited period of time. Can assume a wide variety of forms.

See general strike, intermittent strike, rotating strike, sit-down strike, sympathy strike, wildcat strike vote was unanimously passed. The union wants to renew the collective agreement, and the main area of contention is over pay parity with other Demix workers in the region.

On 5 December 2019, 800 members began a blockade of Unifor Local oil refinery in Regina, Saskatchewan. The refinery is owned by Federated Co-operatives Limited (FCL), which refused further contract negotiations following an attempt to downgrade the company pension scheme, citing financial pressure. Unifor, a union counting 315,000 members, argues that FCL, which reported a CA$959 million profit in 2019, can afford to maintain the current pension scheme.
Throughout the blockade, FCL attempted to keep the site operational and protect fuel supplies to local co-ops in Western Canada using scab labour. Unifor, representing the refinery workers, has condemned both the unprovoked arrest of its members by the police during pickets and the support for the employer from right-wing politicians of the ruling Saskatchewan Party.
On 29 January, Unifor was issued with another contempt order because of the blockades. The union said it would remove the blockades if FCL returned to the bargaining table. The company agreed, and a meeting was scheduled for 31 January.
On 2 June 2020, the near 200-day dispute came to an end as the Unifor ratified a tentative agreement with the employer, Federated Co-operatives Limited. During the six-month blockade, a total of 14 union members were arrested at a legal picket line.
The new collective agreement maintains the defined benefit pension plan and the company matched employee savings plan for existing workers. Wage improvements in the new collective agreement match the National Pattern.

Almost 90 per cent of the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) Operations Supervisors voted Thursday on joining CUPE, but their ballots have not yet been counted because of a technical objection raised by their employer.

“The Operations Supervisors in TTC Transit Control came out in huge numbers to participate in a democratic process and, understandably, are frustrated that the TTC is blocking the votes from being counted,” said Kristy Davidson, a CUPE National Representative who was involved in the organising organising The process of forming or joining a trade union, or inducing other workers to form or join one. drive. “This is a delaying tactic by the employer, but these are strong and motivated workers. Together, we’ll overcome the obstacles and win the respect they deserve.”

The Operations Supervisors decided to unionise after a lack of response by their employer to concerns about issues including health and safety, workload, constant schedule tampering and forced overtime.

“These are people who work around the clock, 24/7, to ensure smooth operation of the TTC in the event of accidents or emergencies, and they deserve better treatment from their employer. We will continue to fight for their rights and a stronger, safer public transit system for everyone.”

CUPE represents more than 80,000 municipal workers across Ontario, including more than 650 workers who maintain critical safety equipment in the TTC.

New Brunswick Labour Minister Trevor Holder has introduced legislative amendments to the binding arbitration arbitration A means of resolving disputes outside the courts through the involvement of a neutral third party, which can either be a single arbitrator or an arbitration board. In non-binding arbitration, the disputing parties are free to reject the third party’s recommendation, whilst in binding arbitration they are bound by its decision. Compulsory arbitration denotes the process where arbitration is not voluntarily entered into by the parties, but is prescribed by law or decided by the authorities.

See conciliation, mediation process for police officers and firefighters that would take into consideration a municipality’s ability to pay for any increases.

The province’s eight cities have been calling for the change, arguing the existing process is “broken” and has created an undue financial burden.

Bob Davidson, a labour analyst with the New Brunswick Police Association, called the bill “unconstitutional”. He pointed to the New Brunswick’s Court of Appeal’s recent decision on nursing home workers in January.”The Supreme Court has ruled that freedom of association freedom of association The right to form and join the trade union of one’s choosing as well as the right of unions to operate freely and carry out their activities without undue interference.

See Guide to the ITUC international trade union rights framework includes the right to strike strike The most common form of industrial action, a strike is a concerted stoppage of work by employees for a limited period of time. Can assume a wide variety of forms.

See general strike, intermittent strike, rotating strike, sit-down strike, sympathy strike, wildcat strike or fair independent binding arbitration arbitration A means of resolving disputes outside the courts through the involvement of a neutral third party, which can either be a single arbitrator or an arbitration board. In non-binding arbitration, the disputing parties are free to reject the third party’s recommendation, whilst in binding arbitration they are bound by its decision. Compulsory arbitration denotes the process where arbitration is not voluntarily entered into by the parties, but is prescribed by law or decided by the authorities.

See conciliation, mediation ,“Davidson told reporters outside the legislature. ”This is not fair independent binding arbitration arbitration A means of resolving disputes outside the courts through the involvement of a neutral third party, which can either be a single arbitrator or an arbitration board. In non-binding arbitration, the disputing parties are free to reject the third party’s recommendation, whilst in binding arbitration they are bound by its decision. Compulsory arbitration denotes the process where arbitration is not voluntarily entered into by the parties, but is prescribed by law or decided by the authorities.

See conciliation, mediation . This is about suppressing and denying police and fire fair wage increases."

According to the Canadian Labour Congress (CLC), it is a common occurrence for employers to engage in bad-faith bargaining with the intention to delay negotiations or hamper the ability to reach an agreement. One of the most significant examples occurred in Gander (Newfoundland and Labrador). Workers at D-J Composites, an aerospace manufacturing plant, voted to strike strike The most common form of industrial action, a strike is a concerted stoppage of work by employees for a limited period of time. Can assume a wide variety of forms.

See general strike, intermittent strike, rotating strike, sit-down strike, sympathy strike, wildcat strike in December 2016, with union leaders saying workers had been without a collective agreement for 21 months. However, the company locked them out first and hired replacement workers to replace the striking workers, represented by Unifor. The labour action finally came to an end in December 2018, after the workers had been locked-out for nearly two years. During this two-year lockout lockout A form of industrial action whereby an employer refuses work to its employees or temporarily shuts down operations. , the provincial Labour Relations Board had ruled that D-J Composites bargained in bad faith (in May 2017).

According to the Canadian Labour Congress (CLC), there were a number of notable instances in 2018 where union workers on strike strike The most common form of industrial action, a strike is a concerted stoppage of work by employees for a limited period of time. Can assume a wide variety of forms.

See general strike, intermittent strike, rotating strike, sit-down strike, sympathy strike, wildcat strike were legislated back to work or prevented from going on strike strike The most common form of industrial action, a strike is a concerted stoppage of work by employees for a limited period of time. Can assume a wide variety of forms.

See general strike, intermittent strike, rotating strike, sit-down strike, sympathy strike, wildcat strike .
On 25 July 2018, the provincial government of Ontario led by newly elected premier Doug Ford legislated members of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) Local 3903 back to work as part of Bill 2, Urgent Priorities Act. CUPE Local 3903 represents contract faculty and teaching/research assistants at York University in Toronto. Members had gone on strike strike The most common form of industrial action, a strike is a concerted stoppage of work by employees for a limited period of time. Can assume a wide variety of forms.

See general strike, intermittent strike, rotating strike, sit-down strike, sympathy strike, wildcat strike in March 2018 over reductions in job security, the elimination of guaranteed minimum funding for master’s students, and York University’s refusal to establish a survivors-of-sexual-violence support fund, among other issues.
The administration refused to come to the bargaining table during the strike strike The most common form of industrial action, a strike is a concerted stoppage of work by employees for a limited period of time. Can assume a wide variety of forms.

See general strike, intermittent strike, rotating strike, sit-down strike, sympathy strike, wildcat strike and there is clear evidence that the employer’s strategy was to await the results of the 7 June 2018 provincial election in the hopes that a Progressive Conservative government might take power. This strategy clearly paid off and will likely be adopted by other employers in Ontario.
On 20 December 2018, the government of Ontario passed Bill 67, An Act to amend the Labour Relations Act, 1995, prohibiting strikes for the current bargaining round between members of the Power Workers’ Union (PWU) and Ontario Power Generation (OPG). PWU workers had been without a contract since March 2018 and negotiations with OPG had reached an impasse, with members of PWU rejecting the employer’s final offer and giving a 21-day strike strike The most common form of industrial action, a strike is a concerted stoppage of work by employees for a limited period of time. Can assume a wide variety of forms.

See general strike, intermittent strike, rotating strike, sit-down strike, sympathy strike, wildcat strike notice on 14 December 2018. Bill 67 empowers the minister of labour to appoint a mediator-arbitrator with broad powers to impose the form of arbitration arbitration A means of resolving disputes outside the courts through the involvement of a neutral third party, which can either be a single arbitrator or an arbitration board. In non-binding arbitration, the disputing parties are free to reject the third party’s recommendation, whilst in binding arbitration they are bound by its decision. Compulsory arbitration denotes the process where arbitration is not voluntarily entered into by the parties, but is prescribed by law or decided by the authorities.

See conciliation, mediation used to determine a new collective agreement between the parties. According to the CLC, while back-to-work legislation has often been used in Canada, this particular piece of legislation sets a troubling precedent by pre-emptively removing workers’ right to strike strike The most common form of industrial action, a strike is a concerted stoppage of work by employees for a limited period of time. Can assume a wide variety of forms.

See general strike, intermittent strike, rotating strike, sit-down strike, sympathy strike, wildcat strike .

The Canadian Labour Congress (CLC) reported a significant number of anti-union discrimination anti-union discrimination Any practice that disadvantages a worker or a group of workers on grounds of their past, current or prospective trade union membership, their legitimate trade union activities, or their use of trade union services. Can constitute dismissal, transfer, demotion, harassment and the like.

See Guide to the ITUC international trade union rights framework

cases including union members being dismissed, denied training and other opportunities at work, denied promotions, or being transferred to other departments, as well as other subtle forms of reprisal, such as bullying or isolating employees. One example was the dismissal of a service employee working for Widewaters Calgary Hotel Management Co. who was also an internal organiser for the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW). The case was brought to the Alberta Labour Relations Board (ALRB). The ALRB found that the employer’s explanation of the dismissal (the employee was late for work six times) was not credible nor reasonable, and the dismissal of the organiser coincided with the employee’s participation in union activity, of which the employer was aware. The ALRB further stated that the employee’s dismissal caused the organising organising The process of forming or joining a trade union, or inducing other workers to form or join one. campaign to be halted, and had a chilling effect on the support for the union.

Ontario saw a series of positive changes to labour and employment law come into effect in early 2018, only to have most of these changes reversed less than a year later with the newly elected provincial government and the passage of Bill 47 “Making Ontario Open for Business Act”. The Act makes the following changes to the Labour Relations Act:

• Eliminates card-based certification in the building services industry, home care and community services industry, and temporary help agency industry, while still leaving it in place for the construction industry.
• Eliminates Bill 148’s provision related to early access to workplace information (despite demonstrating 20 per cent membership support, unions can no longer access employee names, phone numbers, job titles, business address, and, in some cases personal email addresses).
• Eliminates the ability of the Ontario Labour Relations Board (OLRB) to amend or consolidate bargaining units.
• Eliminates the right to access to first collective agreement mediation mediation A process halfway between conciliation and arbitration, in mediation a neutral third party assists the disputing parties in reaching a settlement to an industrial dispute by suggesting possible, non-binding solutions.

See arbitration, conciliation and first agreement arbitration arbitration A means of resolving disputes outside the courts through the involvement of a neutral third party, which can either be a single arbitrator or an arbitration board. In non-binding arbitration, the disputing parties are free to reject the third party’s recommendation, whilst in binding arbitration they are bound by its decision. Compulsory arbitration denotes the process where arbitration is not voluntarily entered into by the parties, but is prescribed by law or decided by the authorities.

See conciliation, mediation , allowing the OLRB to order first collective agreement arbitration arbitration A means of resolving disputes outside the courts through the involvement of a neutral third party, which can either be a single arbitrator or an arbitration board. In non-binding arbitration, the disputing parties are free to reject the third party’s recommendation, whilst in binding arbitration they are bound by its decision. Compulsory arbitration denotes the process where arbitration is not voluntarily entered into by the parties, but is prescribed by law or decided by the authorities.

See conciliation, mediation only under certain circumstances.
• Restricts the circumstances under which the OLRB can remedially certify a trade union without a vote by restoring the option for the OLRB to order a vote or a second vote.
• Removes the power of the government to expand enhanced successor rights protections for unions in “contract flipping” scenarios outside the building services industry, while maintaining such protections in the building services industry.
• Eliminates the requirement for an employer to reinstate a striking employee following six months of strike strike The most common form of industrial action, a strike is a concerted stoppage of work by employees for a limited period of time. Can assume a wide variety of forms.

See general strike, intermittent strike, rotating strike, sit-down strike, sympathy strike, wildcat strike .
• Reduces the monetary penalties for violations of the LRA.

According to the Canadian Labour Congress (CLC), the ongoing issues plaguing the Phoenix payroll system, developed by IBM and launched in 2016 under the Trudeau government, has led to over 200,000 federal public service workers experiencing problems with their pay. One of the most notable issues has been the underpayment or withholding of union dues, resulting in many union members falling out of good standing.
The improper collection of membership dues has particularly affected the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC), which was confronted with a Can$20 million budget shortfall at the end of 2018. Because of a policy that prevents the union from collecting more than a year’s worth of back dues, this shortfall cannot be entirely recovered.
On 14 November, the government resolved some of the problems through adjusted paychecks, but the Phoenix system continues to have issues recalculating dues on salaries negotiated under new collective agreements.

Pursuant to several federal and provincial public service labour relations statutes, important topics have been excluded from the scope of collective bargaining collective bargaining The process of negotiating mutually acceptable terms and conditions of employment as well as regulating industrial relations between one or more workers’ representatives, trade unions, or trade union centres on the one hand and an employer, a group of employers or one or more employers’ organisations on the other.

See collective bargaining agreement
, such as classification, staffing, wages and pensions. Unions have introduced petitions in court to challenge these statutes, with various degrees of success.
On 6 June 2018, the Quebec Superior Court found that s. 113(b) of the Federal Public Sector Labour Relations Act, which restricts collective bargaining collective bargaining The process of negotiating mutually acceptable terms and conditions of employment as well as regulating industrial relations between one or more workers’ representatives, trade unions, or trade union centres on the one hand and an employer, a group of employers or one or more employers’ organisations on the other.

See collective bargaining agreement
over pensions and staffing and reserves unilateral discretion of the government in these areas under the Public Service Employment Act and the Public Service Superannuation Act, violates the freedom of association freedom of association The right to form and join the trade union of one’s choosing as well as the right of unions to operate freely and carry out their activities without undue interference.

See Guide to the ITUC international trade union rights framework guarantee in the Charter. According to the court, this breach could not be justified. This decision is being appealed by the attorney general.
The Manitoba government’s Public Services Sustainability Act (Bill 28) imposed a four-year period of public sector wage freezes or minimal increases in June 2017, affecting 120,000 public sector workers. On 4 July 2017, the Manitoba Federation of Labour (MFL) and a coalition of unions grouped together in the Partnership to Defend Public Services (PDPS) and representing 110,000 members filed an application for an injunction injunction A court order prohibiting or preventing a certain course of action, such as calling or continuing with a strike. in the Manitoba Court of Queen’s Bench against the Public Services Sustainability Act. On 20 July 2018, the Manitoba Court of Queen’s Bench denied the unions’ request to issue a temporary injunction injunction A court order prohibiting or preventing a certain course of action, such as calling or continuing with a strike. against the application of the Act until the court could consider its constitutionality.

On 9 May 2018, the Manitoba government passed Bill 29 that will force thousands of health care workers into disruptive votes to “choose” which union and collective agreement they will have. Bill 29 (The Health Sector Bargaining Unit bargaining unit A group of workers within a particular company, establishment, industry or occupation that constitutes an appropriate unit for the purpose of collective bargaining.

See bargaining agent
Review Act), which was initially introduced in 2017, dramatically changes labour relations in the health care sector. Bill 29 reduces the number of bargaining units to seven in each of the five health regions. More specifically, Bill 29 forces each of the following groups of workers in each health care region to have just one collective agreement and be represented by a single union: professional-technical/EMS workers; facility support workers; community support workers; nurses; doctors; medical residents; and physician assistants and clinical assistants.

In May 2017, the Quebec government put an end to the construction workers’ strike strike The most common form of industrial action, a strike is a concerted stoppage of work by employees for a limited period of time. Can assume a wide variety of forms.

See general strike, intermittent strike, rotating strike, sit-down strike, sympathy strike, wildcat strike , launched a week earlier, by passing special Act 142, forcing the strikers to go back to work. The management and trade union representatives, for their part, were required to continue with talks aimed at reaching new negotiated agreements in the industry’s four sectors. The construction trade union alliance denounced the procedure and said it would challenge this law that “obliterates its ultimate bargaining tool”. It is the second time a special law has been passed this year to settle a labour dispute labour dispute See industrial dispute . In February, state lawyers and notaries also suffered the impact of this practice. The legislation is currently the subject of a legal challenge.

At the beginning of 2016, the new federal government repealed three anti-union laws drawn up by the previous executive. First of all, it did away with controversial Bill C-377 on the financial transparency of trade unions, adopted at the end of June 2015, which would have forced unions to publish far too detailed financial reports and all kinds of sensitive information that employers would have been able to exploit. It then abrogated Bill C-525, which would have made the unionisation of workers even more complex, and would have facilitated demands to have a union revoked. Finally, he repealed Bill C-59, which would have given the government the power to unilaterally depart from the collective bargaining collective bargaining The process of negotiating mutually acceptable terms and conditions of employment as well as regulating industrial relations between one or more workers’ representatives, trade unions, or trade union centres on the one hand and an employer, a group of employers or one or more employers’ organisations on the other.

See collective bargaining agreement
process, as well as to impose a new sick leave regime on the public service. The Canadian Labour Congress (CLC) and Public Services International (PSI) had, moreover, on 14 September, filed a joint complaint with the ILO International Labour Organization A tripartite United Nations (UN) agency established in 1919 to promote working and living conditions. The main international body charged with developing and overseeing international labour standards.

See tripartism, ITUC Guide to international trade union rights against Bill C-59, which violates Conventions 87, 98, 151 and 154.

In January 2015, the Supreme Court of Canada invalidated the province of Saskatchewan’s 2008 Public Service Essential Services essential services Services the interruption of which would endanger the life, personal safety or health of the whole or part of the population. Can include the hospital sector, electricity and water supply services, and air traffic control. Strikes can be restricted or even prohibited in essential services.

See Guide to the ITUC international trade union rights framework
Act (PSESA). The Court found that the PSESA infringed the constitutionally protected right of public sector workers to strike strike The most common form of industrial action, a strike is a concerted stoppage of work by employees for a limited period of time. Can assume a wide variety of forms.

See general strike, intermittent strike, rotating strike, sit-down strike, sympathy strike, wildcat strike by granting the employer the power to unilaterally deem which individuals and what work were deemed “essential” and therefore ineligible to strike strike The most common form of industrial action, a strike is a concerted stoppage of work by employees for a limited period of time. Can assume a wide variety of forms.

See general strike, intermittent strike, rotating strike, sit-down strike, sympathy strike, wildcat strike . The PSESA also did not provide arbitration arbitration A means of resolving disputes outside the courts through the involvement of a neutral third party, which can either be a single arbitrator or an arbitration board. In non-binding arbitration, the disputing parties are free to reject the third party’s recommendation, whilst in binding arbitration they are bound by its decision. Compulsory arbitration denotes the process where arbitration is not voluntarily entered into by the parties, but is prescribed by law or decided by the authorities.

See conciliation, mediation or another meaningful alternative to a strike strike The most common form of industrial action, a strike is a concerted stoppage of work by employees for a limited period of time. Can assume a wide variety of forms.

See general strike, intermittent strike, rotating strike, sit-down strike, sympathy strike, wildcat strike .

: In February 2015, the government of Canada prepared back-to-work legislation days before 3,000 Canadian Pacific Railway employees and Teamsters union members went out on legal strike strike The most common form of industrial action, a strike is a concerted stoppage of work by employees for a limited period of time. Can assume a wide variety of forms.

See general strike, intermittent strike, rotating strike, sit-down strike, sympathy strike, wildcat strike . The government made its intention clear to introduce the legislation, and the strike strike The most common form of industrial action, a strike is a concerted stoppage of work by employees for a limited period of time. Can assume a wide variety of forms.

See general strike, intermittent strike, rotating strike, sit-down strike, sympathy strike, wildcat strike ended after one and a half days, with the union agreeing to send the dispute to binding arbitration arbitration A means of resolving disputes outside the courts through the involvement of a neutral third party, which can either be a single arbitrator or an arbitration board. In non-binding arbitration, the disputing parties are free to reject the third party’s recommendation, whilst in binding arbitration they are bound by its decision. Compulsory arbitration denotes the process where arbitration is not voluntarily entered into by the parties, but is prescribed by law or decided by the authorities.

See conciliation, mediation .

In September 2014, Nova Scotia Government and General Employees Union vice president Jason MacLean was arrested at a public demonstration against Nova Scotia’s Bill 1. He was wrestled to the ground and handcuffed by a Halifax police officer who accused him of assaulting another person during the protest. The accusations were found to be baseless, and the Halifax Regional Police later dropped all charges against MacLean and publicly apologised for his arrest.
The newly-elected Liberal government of Stephen McNeil introduced Bill 1, the Health Authorities Act, intended to decrease the number of health system bargaining units eligible to participate in collective bargaining collective bargaining The process of negotiating mutually acceptable terms and conditions of employment as well as regulating industrial relations between one or more workers’ representatives, trade unions, or trade union centres on the one hand and an employer, a group of employers or one or more employers’ organisations on the other.

See collective bargaining agreement
from 50 down to four, and make substantial changes to collective bargaining collective bargaining The process of negotiating mutually acceptable terms and conditions of employment as well as regulating industrial relations between one or more workers’ representatives, trade unions, or trade union centres on the one hand and an employer, a group of employers or one or more employers’ organisations on the other.

See collective bargaining agreement
. Bill 1 threatened to seriously infringe on the constitutional rights of workers to choose the bargaining agent bargaining agent A workers’ representative authorised to bargain collectively on behalf of workers in a bargaining unit.

See collective bargaining they want by imposing not only union representation, but a collective agreement on these same workers. Bill 1 would make it illegal for healthcare workers to choose their union by forcing all workers into one of four bargaining units, and will, in fact, prohibit applications for certification, decertification and displacement of one union for another.

In April, the International Union of Food, Agricultural, Hotel, Restaurant, Catering, Tobacco and Allied Workers’ Associations (IUF) launched an online support campaign to denounce the contempt shown by the management of Covered Bridge Potato Chips, in Hartland, for trade union demands. The workers at the factory began a strike strike The most common form of industrial action, a strike is a concerted stoppage of work by employees for a limited period of time. Can assume a wide variety of forms.

See general strike, intermittent strike, rotating strike, sit-down strike, sympathy strike, wildcat strike on 4 January over the management’s persistent refusal to negotiate better working conditions. The union, affiliated to United Food and Commercial Workers Canada (UFCW) was founded in December 2013, but the employer is still refusing to negotiate with it. A court has ruled that Covered Bridge has repeatedly violated the labour law, most notably by intimidating the unionised workers.

In March 2015 the British Colombia Labour Relations Board ruled that Southern Railway (SRY) had unlawfully used replacement, non-union workers when they used A&BRail to replace switch ties on Annacis Island. SRY was ordered to cease and desist using private contractors to do union work, and to pay the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) $5,000 in damages.

The union had been in dispute with SRY since November 2014, after members overwhelmingly rejected the package proposed by the company. The union had voted for a job action on 22 November after the employer had steadfastly refused to address workers’ concerns through negotiations. On 31 December 2014 the company ordered a lockout lockout A form of industrial action whereby an employer refuses work to its employees or temporarily shuts down operations. and brought in replacement labour.

Crown Metal Packaging Canada, part of Crown Holdings, a US firm with its headquarters in Philadelphia, continued to use non-union labour to replace its striking workforce throughout 2014 and in the first quarter of 2015. One hundred twenty workers, all members of United Steelworkers (USW) Local 9176, at the Crown canning factory in Toronto, had been on strike strike The most common form of industrial action, a strike is a concerted stoppage of work by employees for a limited period of time. Can assume a wide variety of forms.

See general strike, intermittent strike, rotating strike, sit-down strike, sympathy strike, wildcat strike since September 2013 in protest at attempts to massively undercut previously negotiated conditions. Some of the workers’ contracts had run out in June 2013, but it gradually became clear that the company was not serious about negotiating contract renewals, was delaying negotiations and focusing on minor and irrelevant issues. Then Crown demanded that all workers hired on new contracts should be paid 42 per cent less for doing the same work as current employees, despite the fact that Crown is a highly profitable company. When the existing employees refused to accept the proposal, Crown demanded that all workers accept an across the board 33 per cent wage cut. They refused, and the strike strike The most common form of industrial action, a strike is a concerted stoppage of work by employees for a limited period of time. Can assume a wide variety of forms.

See general strike, intermittent strike, rotating strike, sit-down strike, sympathy strike, wildcat strike began on 6 September 2013. The plant remained closed for two weeks and two days before operations resumed, with the company using non-union labour. It also brought in a specialist union-busting firm from the US, AFI Security.

The strike strike The most common form of industrial action, a strike is a concerted stoppage of work by employees for a limited period of time. Can assume a wide variety of forms.

See general strike, intermittent strike, rotating strike, sit-down strike, sympathy strike, wildcat strike continued into 2015, with Crown vowing to keep the replacement workers on the job even if a settlement is reached, meaning more than three-quarters of the plant’s current workforce would be laid off. This could effectively bust the union, which it believes is precisely what the company intends.

The Budget Implementation Act, Bill C-4. gives the federal government, as the employer, the unfettered right to decide what work is considered “essential” and how many and which workers are required to accomplish this work during a strike strike The most common form of industrial action, a strike is a concerted stoppage of work by employees for a limited period of time. Can assume a wide variety of forms.

See general strike, intermittent strike, rotating strike, sit-down strike, sympathy strike, wildcat strike . It allows the federal government to increase the number of essential employees at any point in the bargaining process, even during a strike strike The most common form of industrial action, a strike is a concerted stoppage of work by employees for a limited period of time. Can assume a wide variety of forms.

See general strike, intermittent strike, rotating strike, sit-down strike, sympathy strike, wildcat strike . Also, the arbitration arbitration A means of resolving disputes outside the courts through the involvement of a neutral third party, which can either be a single arbitrator or an arbitration board. In non-binding arbitration, the disputing parties are free to reject the third party’s recommendation, whilst in binding arbitration they are bound by its decision. Compulsory arbitration denotes the process where arbitration is not voluntarily entered into by the parties, but is prescribed by law or decided by the authorities.

See conciliation, mediation option is removed for all bargaining units except those where 80 per cent of employees perform work that has been designated “essential” by the employer. Groups that do not meet the 80 per cent threshold are automatically put on the conciliation conciliation An attempt by a neutral third party, a conciliator, to aid the settling of an industrial dispute by improving communications, offering advice and interpreting issues to bring the disputing parties to a point where they can reconcile their differences. The conciliator does not take as active a role as a mediator or an arbitrator.

See arbitration, mediation -strike strike The most common form of industrial action, a strike is a concerted stoppage of work by employees for a limited period of time. Can assume a wide variety of forms.

See general strike, intermittent strike, rotating strike, sit-down strike, sympathy strike, wildcat strike route. In the few cases where arbitration arbitration A means of resolving disputes outside the courts through the involvement of a neutral third party, which can either be a single arbitrator or an arbitration board. In non-binding arbitration, the disputing parties are free to reject the third party’s recommendation, whilst in binding arbitration they are bound by its decision. Compulsory arbitration denotes the process where arbitration is not voluntarily entered into by the parties, but is prescribed by law or decided by the authorities.

See conciliation, mediation will be allowed, the process will no longer be independent of government. Arbitrators will be limited to consider only two factors: recruitment and retention, and the government’s fiscal circumstances relative to its budgetary policies.

In Quebec, Bill 54 ended a two week strike strike The most common form of industrial action, a strike is a concerted stoppage of work by employees for a limited period of time. Can assume a wide variety of forms.

See general strike, intermittent strike, rotating strike, sit-down strike, sympathy strike, wildcat strike by 77,000 construction workers in Quebec and imposed a one year agreement with a wage increase of two per cent.

A federal government backed Private Members Bill (C-377) currently before the Senate aims to make it compulsory for trade unions to disclose information on Internet regarding any transactions over $5,000, the salaries paid to employees and any assets they own, making it available to the general public rather than just their members, as well as to report on the time allocated to their various activities. The aim is to weaken trade unions’ capacity to act by questioning their role in areas other than collective bargaining collective bargaining The process of negotiating mutually acceptable terms and conditions of employment as well as regulating industrial relations between one or more workers’ representatives, trade unions, or trade union centres on the one hand and an employer, a group of employers or one or more employers’ organisations on the other.

See collective bargaining agreement
.

The Public Sector Services Continuation Act (Bill 45) in Alberta places further restrictions on some 200,000 unionized public sector workers in the province who already are denied their right to strike strike The most common form of industrial action, a strike is a concerted stoppage of work by employees for a limited period of time. Can assume a wide variety of forms.

See general strike, intermittent strike, rotating strike, sit-down strike, sympathy strike, wildcat strike . It denies individuals the fundamental right to freedom of expression by introducing for the first time in Canada, a vague legal concept of “strike strike The most common form of industrial action, a strike is a concerted stoppage of work by employees for a limited period of time. Can assume a wide variety of forms.

See general strike, intermittent strike, rotating strike, sit-down strike, sympathy strike, wildcat strike threat” which makes it illegal to canvass the opinion of “employees to determine whether they wish to strike strike The most common form of industrial action, a strike is a concerted stoppage of work by employees for a limited period of time. Can assume a wide variety of forms.

See general strike, intermittent strike, rotating strike, sit-down strike, sympathy strike, wildcat strike ,” or for an individual to freely express a view which calls for or supports strike strike The most common form of industrial action, a strike is a concerted stoppage of work by employees for a limited period of time. Can assume a wide variety of forms.

See general strike, intermittent strike, rotating strike, sit-down strike, sympathy strike, wildcat strike action. The legislation also imposes huge punitive financial penalties on unions, their members and even unrelated citizens who encourage or support an “illegal strike strike The most common form of industrial action, a strike is a concerted stoppage of work by employees for a limited period of time. Can assume a wide variety of forms.

See general strike, intermittent strike, rotating strike, sit-down strike, sympathy strike, wildcat strike ” or “strike strike The most common form of industrial action, a strike is a concerted stoppage of work by employees for a limited period of time. Can assume a wide variety of forms.

See general strike, intermittent strike, rotating strike, sit-down strike, sympathy strike, wildcat strike threat.”

In Nova Scotia, the Essential Home-support Services (2014) Act (Bill 30, March) ended a two-day strike strike The most common form of industrial action, a strike is a concerted stoppage of work by employees for a limited period of time. Can assume a wide variety of forms.

See general strike, intermittent strike, rotating strike, sit-down strike, sympathy strike, wildcat strike of some 500 home care workers and forced the workers’ unions and their employers to negotiate an essential services essential services Services the interruption of which would endanger the life, personal safety or health of the whole or part of the population. Can include the hospital sector, electricity and water supply services, and air traffic control. Strikes can be restricted or even prohibited in essential services.

See Guide to the ITUC international trade union rights framework
agreement prior to the commencement of a strike strike The most common form of industrial action, a strike is a concerted stoppage of work by employees for a limited period of time. Can assume a wide variety of forms.

See general strike, intermittent strike, rotating strike, sit-down strike, sympathy strike, wildcat strike or lock-out. In alberta, the Public Service Salary Restraint Act (Bill 46) retroactively eliminated a scheduled arbitration arbitration A means of resolving disputes outside the courts through the involvement of a neutral third party, which can either be a single arbitrator or an arbitration board. In non-binding arbitration, the disputing parties are free to reject the third party’s recommendation, whilst in binding arbitration they are bound by its decision. Compulsory arbitration denotes the process where arbitration is not voluntarily entered into by the parties, but is prescribed by law or decided by the authorities.

See conciliation, mediation process, giving government employees and their union no real input in determining their wages, benefits and working conditions for this round of bargaining. The only “choices” they have been given under Bill 46 are, to either accept the employer’s last offer, or have that offer legislated on them.

Bill 86 averted a pending strike strike The most common form of industrial action, a strike is a concerted stoppage of work by employees for a limited period of time. Can assume a wide variety of forms.

See general strike, intermittent strike, rotating strike, sit-down strike, sympathy strike, wildcat strike by ambulance workers taking away their right to strike strike The most common form of industrial action, a strike is a concerted stoppage of work by employees for a limited period of time. Can assume a wide variety of forms.

See general strike, intermittent strike, rotating strike, sit-down strike, sympathy strike, wildcat strike and forcing the dispute to final selection offer arbitration arbitration A means of resolving disputes outside the courts through the involvement of a neutral third party, which can either be a single arbitrator or an arbitration board. In non-binding arbitration, the disputing parties are free to reject the third party’s recommendation, whilst in binding arbitration they are bound by its decision. Compulsory arbitration denotes the process where arbitration is not voluntarily entered into by the parties, but is prescribed by law or decided by the authorities.

See conciliation, mediation .

Even though Crown Holdings doubled its profits in 2012, the company demanded major concessions from workers employed at its Toronto plant, including two-tier wage rates and pension freezes. Workers protested against this decision with a strike strike The most common form of industrial action, a strike is a concerted stoppage of work by employees for a limited period of time. Can assume a wide variety of forms.

See general strike, intermittent strike, rotating strike, sit-down strike, sympathy strike, wildcat strike on 6 September 2013. However, on 8 October 2013 the company tried to break the strike strike The most common form of industrial action, a strike is a concerted stoppage of work by employees for a limited period of time. Can assume a wide variety of forms.

See general strike, intermittent strike, rotating strike, sit-down strike, sympathy strike, wildcat strike with replacement workers from a non-union plant in Calgary.

Wal-Mart closed a branch in Jonquière, Quebec because of a potentially successful organising organising The process of forming or joining a trade union, or inducing other workers to form or join one. drive by UFCW Canada. In November 2012, the Supreme Court of Canada indicated that it would hear UFCW’s appeal.

Migrant workers of Mexican origin employed at Floriala Farms and Sidhu Nurseries near Surrey, British Columbia under Canada’s Seasonal Agricultural Worker Programme have been warned by their consulate about visiting union-run support centres in the Lower Mainland of British Columbia. At a 2012 hearing before the B.C. Labour Relations Board the Mexican government successfully claimed sovereign immunity, a view now being appealed by the United Food and Commercial Workers before the B.C. Supreme Court.

In June 2012, the Federal government moved quickly to introduce back-to-work legislation to end a strike strike The most common form of industrial action, a strike is a concerted stoppage of work by employees for a limited period of time. Can assume a wide variety of forms.

See general strike, intermittent strike, rotating strike, sit-down strike, sympathy strike, wildcat strike by 4,800 members the International Brotherhood of Teamsters against Canadian Pacific Railway.

In March 2012, the Federal government referred two Air Canada labour disputes involving pilots (Air Canada Pilots Association) and ground crews (International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers) to the Canadian Industrial Relations industrial relations The individual and collective relations and dealings between workers and employers at the workplace, as well as the institutional interaction between unions, employers and also the government.

See social dialogue Board, a move that effectively blocked work stoppages and forced the employees back to work. In both cases, the Board subsequently sided with the employer. This followed two other actions: (i) in June, 2011, the government announced its intent to introduce back-to-work legislation to end a legal strike strike The most common form of industrial action, a strike is a concerted stoppage of work by employees for a limited period of time. Can assume a wide variety of forms.

See general strike, intermittent strike, rotating strike, sit-down strike, sympathy strike, wildcat strike of Air Canada’s 3,800 sales and service agents (Canadian Auto Workers Union), forcing the union and employer to resolve differences within a few days, or face a legislative resolution; and (ii) in October 2011, a dispute involving Air Canada flight attendants (Canadian Union of Public Employees) was immediately referred to the Canada Industrial Relations industrial relations The individual and collective relations and dealings between workers and employers at the workplace, as well as the institutional interaction between unions, employers and also the government.

See social dialogue Board by the Federal government to prevent the employees from exercising their right to strike strike The most common form of industrial action, a strike is a concerted stoppage of work by employees for a limited period of time. Can assume a wide variety of forms.

See general strike, intermittent strike, rotating strike, sit-down strike, sympathy strike, wildcat strike .

Employers continue to employ strikebreakers at will, pointing to a lack of provisions against the use of strike strike The most common form of industrial action, a strike is a concerted stoppage of work by employees for a limited period of time. Can assume a wide variety of forms.

See general strike, intermittent strike, rotating strike, sit-down strike, sympathy strike, wildcat strike -breakers in many Canadian jurisdictions. Even in Quebec where legislation is in place, both the ‘Journal de Québec’ and ‘Journal de Montréal’ produced their papers as usual, despite strikes that lasted 16 and 24 months respectively. The government has yet to follow up on recommendations from a review by the ‘Assemblée Nationale’ to amend legislation.

Farm workers are excluded from protection afforded by labour relations legislation and thus deprived of the right to organise and bargain collectively in the provinces of Alberta, Ontario and New Brunswick (at operations for five or fewer workers). In Ontario, the government has led the assault by appealing a lower court decision that had granted Ontario farm workers collective bargaining collective bargaining The process of negotiating mutually acceptable terms and conditions of employment as well as regulating industrial relations between one or more workers’ representatives, trade unions, or trade union centres on the one hand and an employer, a group of employers or one or more employers’ organisations on the other.

See collective bargaining agreement
rights. In 2011 it obtained a Federal Supreme Court ruling to restrict those same rights – in contradiction to an earlier ILO International Labour Organization A tripartite United Nations (UN) agency established in 1919 to promote working and living conditions. The main international body charged with developing and overseeing international labour standards.

See tripartism, ITUC Guide to international trade union rights ruling on the same matter. Corrective legislation is not on the government’s horizon.

The Canadian government continues to implement legislation introduced in conjunction with the 2009 Federal Budget, which fixes the level of wage increases for all federal public service employees. The provisions continue to negatively impact federal public sector employees in general, and particularly those working for the Canada Revenue Agency, the National Gallery of Canada, the Canada Council for the Arts, the Canadian Museum of Nature and the National Arts Centre, who have experienced a reduction in negotiated wage rates. An egregious example of this is the current implementation to “modernise” wage parity in the federal public sector, by making pay equity an object of collective bargaining collective bargaining The process of negotiating mutually acceptable terms and conditions of employment as well as regulating industrial relations between one or more workers’ representatives, trade unions, or trade union centres on the one hand and an employer, a group of employers or one or more employers’ organisations on the other.

See collective bargaining agreement
instead of a legislated right. At the same time, it has prohibited the trade union from representing its members in the filing of pay equity complaints, a clear tampering with the rights of freedom of association freedom of association The right to form and join the trade union of one’s choosing as well as the right of unions to operate freely and carry out their activities without undue interference.

See Guide to the ITUC international trade union rights framework .

The removal or imposition of certain issues that might be subject to collective bargaining collective bargaining The process of negotiating mutually acceptable terms and conditions of employment as well as regulating industrial relations between one or more workers’ representatives, trade unions, or trade union centres on the one hand and an employer, a group of employers or one or more employers’ organisations on the other.

See collective bargaining agreement
is also practiced at the provincial or territorial level. For example in 2007, the Superior Court of Québec invalidated the 2003 Bill-30 on collective bargaining collective bargaining The process of negotiating mutually acceptable terms and conditions of employment as well as regulating industrial relations between one or more workers’ representatives, trade unions, or trade union centres on the one hand and an employer, a group of employers or one or more employers’ organisations on the other.

See collective bargaining agreement
in the public sector, which unilaterally defined collective bargaining collective bargaining The process of negotiating mutually acceptable terms and conditions of employment as well as regulating industrial relations between one or more workers’ representatives, trade unions, or trade union centres on the one hand and an employer, a group of employers or one or more employers’ organisations on the other.

See collective bargaining agreement
units and imposed what they would negotiate, without recourse to strikes. The matter was appealed in 2009 but is still being deliberated. Similarly in Quebec, Bill-43 imposes conditions of work in the public sector without collective bargaining collective bargaining The process of negotiating mutually acceptable terms and conditions of employment as well as regulating industrial relations between one or more workers’ representatives, trade unions, or trade union centres on the one hand and an employer, a group of employers or one or more employers’ organisations on the other.

See collective bargaining agreement
. A provincial committee on trade union rights has recommended that the government amend the legislation, but without follow-up to date.

The ILO International Labour Organization A tripartite United Nations (UN) agency established in 1919 to promote working and living conditions. The main international body charged with developing and overseeing international labour standards.

See tripartism, ITUC Guide to international trade union rights notion of ‘essential services essential services Services the interruption of which would endanger the life, personal safety or health of the whole or part of the population. Can include the hospital sector, electricity and water supply services, and air traffic control. Strikes can be restricted or even prohibited in essential services.

See Guide to the ITUC international trade union rights framework
’ is being distorted by governments to broadly argue against so-called economic impacts of strikes on the economy and social well-being.
On June 26, the federal government adopted Bill C-6 to impose a settlement to end a lockout lockout A form of industrial action whereby an employer refuses work to its employees or temporarily shuts down operations. of nearly 50,000 postal workers, thereby continuing its track record since 1950 to introduce back-to-work legislation by tampering with the definition of ‘essential service’. The imposition of such legislation has become commonplace, the mere threat of it often tipping the balance against a particular strike strike The most common form of industrial action, a strike is a concerted stoppage of work by employees for a limited period of time. Can assume a wide variety of forms.

See general strike, intermittent strike, rotating strike, sit-down strike, sympathy strike, wildcat strike an employer opposes. This purpose was served on June 16, when the government announced its intent to introduce back-to-work legislation to end a legal strike strike The most common form of industrial action, a strike is a concerted stoppage of work by employees for a limited period of time. Can assume a wide variety of forms.

See general strike, intermittent strike, rotating strike, sit-down strike, sympathy strike, wildcat strike of Air Canada’s 3,800 sales and service agents, forcing the union and employer to resolve differences within a few days, or face a legislative resolution. In the case of a second strike strike The most common form of industrial action, a strike is a concerted stoppage of work by employees for a limited period of time. Can assume a wide variety of forms.

See general strike, intermittent strike, rotating strike, sit-down strike, sympathy strike, wildcat strike with Air Canada flight attendants on October 13, the federal government referred the labour dispute labour dispute See industrial dispute to the Canada Industrial Relations industrial relations The individual and collective relations and dealings between workers and employers at the workplace, as well as the institutional interaction between unions, employers and also the government.

See social dialogue Board, another move to prevent the employees from going on strike strike The most common form of industrial action, a strike is a concerted stoppage of work by employees for a limited period of time. Can assume a wide variety of forms.

See general strike, intermittent strike, rotating strike, sit-down strike, sympathy strike, wildcat strike .

The Government of Manitoba is also standing by current legislation that allows employers to unilaterally designate workers as ‘essential’. Similarly, legislation widening the application of ‘essential services essential services Services the interruption of which would endanger the life, personal safety or health of the whole or part of the population. Can include the hospital sector, electricity and water supply services, and air traffic control. Strikes can be restricted or even prohibited in essential services.

See Guide to the ITUC international trade union rights framework
’ continues to deny full exercise of trade union rights in such other provinces as New Brunswick, British Columbia, Saskatchewan and Prince Edward Island.

The Saskatchewan government continues to stand by legislation adopted in 2008, which has the effect of reducing the rights to organise and engage in collective bargaining collective bargaining The process of negotiating mutually acceptable terms and conditions of employment as well as regulating industrial relations between one or more workers’ representatives, trade unions, or trade union centres on the one hand and an employer, a group of employers or one or more employers’ organisations on the other.

See collective bargaining agreement
for thousands of public sector employees. It introduced legislation to eliminate sectoral bargaining in the construction industry, allowing the establishment of employer-dominated company unions, and greatly reducing the power of unions in the construction industry by reducing their longstanding right to control the supply of labour.

In 2007, the Supreme Court ruled that collective bargaining collective bargaining The process of negotiating mutually acceptable terms and conditions of employment as well as regulating industrial relations between one or more workers’ representatives, trade unions, or trade union centres on the one hand and an employer, a group of employers or one or more employers’ organisations on the other.

See collective bargaining agreement
was included within the meaning of the term “Association” in Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms, yet neither federal nor most provincial or territorial governments are taking much heed. Instead of amending legislation and practice to conform to the Supreme Court ruling, Governments are taking on ‘case-by-case’ battles at labour boards, arbitration arbitration A means of resolving disputes outside the courts through the involvement of a neutral third party, which can either be a single arbitrator or an arbitration board. In non-binding arbitration, the disputing parties are free to reject the third party’s recommendation, whilst in binding arbitration they are bound by its decision. Compulsory arbitration denotes the process where arbitration is not voluntarily entered into by the parties, but is prescribed by law or decided by the authorities.

See conciliation, mediation tribunals and the courts. Meanwhile the Federal government has introduced back-to-work legislation to impose settlements in 2011 with postal workers and two separate Air Canada strikes. The overall effect is to erode collective bargaining collective bargaining The process of negotiating mutually acceptable terms and conditions of employment as well as regulating industrial relations between one or more workers’ representatives, trade unions, or trade union centres on the one hand and an employer, a group of employers or one or more employers’ organisations on the other.

See collective bargaining agreement
, generally, whilst undermining union capacity by forcing them to spend a disproportionate amount of finances on judicial or quasi-judicial representation.

In late 2011, a Private Members Bill was introduced into the House of Commons to change the criteria for union reporting to the Canada Revenue Agency, thus further increasing financial burdens on them. It also aims at giving employers detailed information about union operations, at taxpayers expense. The introduction of a similar private members bill in British Columbia, with Saskatchewan intimating it might do the same, raises the specter of a coordinated attack in a number of jurisdictions.

In a conflict stemming from the 1980s, rural route mail couriers of Canada Post have struggled for their rights to form a union and to engage in collective bargaining collective bargaining The process of negotiating mutually acceptable terms and conditions of employment as well as regulating industrial relations between one or more workers’ representatives, trade unions, or trade union centres on the one hand and an employer, a group of employers or one or more employers’ organisations on the other.

See collective bargaining agreement
. Section 13(5) of the Canada Post Act excludes mail contractors from the scope of the Canada Labour Code, and the employer has adamantly stated that rural route mail couriers and other associated staff shall be considered contractors. In 2003, as a result of intense lobbying, the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) was certified to represent the workers and negotiated a collective agreement that granted the mail couriers employee status. However, the employer has continued its judicial persecution of the union and its organising organising The process of forming or joining a trade union, or inducing other workers to form or join one. efforts.

The Saskatchewan government has introduced legislation that will eliminate sectoral bargaining in the construction industry, allow the establishment of employer-dominated company unions, and greatly reduce the power of unions in the construction industry by reducing their long-standing right concerning the supply of labour.

Employers continue to employ strikebreakers at will, pointing to a lack of provisions against the use of strike strike The most common form of industrial action, a strike is a concerted stoppage of work by employees for a limited period of time. Can assume a wide variety of forms.

See general strike, intermittent strike, rotating strike, sit-down strike, sympathy strike, wildcat strike -breakers in many Canadian jurisdictions. In 2010, for example, strikes involving Steelworkers at Brantford, Sudbury and Port Colborne in Ontario were aggravated and extended by the introduction of strikebreakers.

The Canadian government is currently implementing legislation introduced in conjunction with the 2009 Federal Budget, which fixes the level of wage increases for all federal public service employees. The provisions continue to negatively impact federal public sector employees in general, and particularly those working for the Canada Revenue Agency, the National Gallery of Canada, the Canada Council for the Arts, the Canadian Museum of Nature and the National Arts Centre, who will experience a reduction in negotiated wage rates.

In addition, the Canadian government is implementing legislative measures to “modernise” wage parity in the federal public sector, by making pay equity an object of collective bargaining collective bargaining The process of negotiating mutually acceptable terms and conditions of employment as well as regulating industrial relations between one or more workers’ representatives, trade unions, or trade union centres on the one hand and an employer, a group of employers or one or more employers’ organisations on the other.

See collective bargaining agreement
instead of a legislated right. At the same time, it has prohibited a trade union from representing its members in the filing of pay equity complaints. In December 2010, the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) was granted leave by the Ontario Superior Court of Justice to present arguments against the constitutionality of the Expenditure Restraint Act and the Public Sector Equitable Compensation Act. PSAC’s appeal is also backed by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the union representing professional employees in the public sector.

The Canadian government also allowed the Maritime Employers’ Association, which operates under federal jurisdiction, to lock out longshoremen in the Port of Montreal without notice or justification in order to reinforce its intention to reverse a long-standing trade union right to income security.

Farm workers in the provinces of Alberta, Ontario and New Brunswick are excluded from the protection afforded by labour relations legislation and thus deprived of legal provisions protecting their right to organise. In 2008, the ILO International Labour Organization A tripartite United Nations (UN) agency established in 1919 to promote working and living conditions. The main international body charged with developing and overseeing international labour standards.

See tripartism, ITUC Guide to international trade union rights recommended that the governments in question “indicate in the next report all the measures taken or envisaged by the governments of Ontario, Alberta and New Brunswick to amend their laws, with a view to guaranteeing agricultural workers the right to organise”. In November 2008, the Ontario Appeal Court gave the government a period of one year to ensure that farm workers in Ontario were covered by sufficient protective legal provisions to allow them to bargain collectively, but the Ontario government appealed against the ruling to the Supreme Court of Canada. In early 2009, the ILO International Labour Organization A tripartite United Nations (UN) agency established in 1919 to promote working and living conditions. The main international body charged with developing and overseeing international labour standards.

See tripartism, ITUC Guide to international trade union rights criticised Ontario for not having acted in good faith, and the United Food and Commercial Workers’ International Union (UFCW) filed a new complaint with the ILO International Labour Organization A tripartite United Nations (UN) agency established in 1919 to promote working and living conditions. The main international body charged with developing and overseeing international labour standards.

See tripartism, ITUC Guide to international trade union rights , which is currently being examined.

On 25 January, the Liberal government of Ontario presented a back-to-work bill to end a strike strike The most common form of industrial action, a strike is a concerted stoppage of work by employees for a limited period of time. Can assume a wide variety of forms.

See general strike, intermittent strike, rotating strike, sit-down strike, sympathy strike, wildcat strike at York University by contract staff, teaching assistants and graduate assistants providing non-essential services essential services Services the interruption of which would endanger the life, personal safety or health of the whole or part of the population. Can include the hospital sector, electricity and water supply services, and air traffic control. Strikes can be restricted or even prohibited in essential services.

See Guide to the ITUC international trade union rights framework
affiliated to the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) 3903, calling for the Chamber’s unanimous consent to pass the legislation. Members of the New Democratic Party (NDP), who were unanimously opposed to the bill, refused to give their consent, provoking a critical debate on this issue in the Ontario Legislative Assembly. In May, a mediated agreement was concluded under the terms of the back-to-work legislation. The national CUPE and CUPE 3903 are studying the possibility of presenting their case in the form of an ILO International Labour Organization A tripartite United Nations (UN) agency established in 1919 to promote working and living conditions. The main international body charged with developing and overseeing international labour standards.

See tripartism, ITUC Guide to international trade union rights complaint.