Anti-Scab Legislation

The BQ private members Bill C-257 to Amend the Canada Labour Act to include anti-scab legislation had second reading in the house yesterday. You can read the debate here.

It is one of two private members bills coming before the house on this issue, which was also debated in the last parliament but went down to defeat at the hands of the Liberals.

In his opening comments Mr. Richard Nadeau (Gatineau, BQ, who brought forward the bill said;

Mr. Speaker, I am very honoured to again present Bill C-257, an act to amend the Canada Labour Code (replacement workers).

The Bloc Québécois has made it a duty to present this anti-scab legislation for the tenth time. There should no longer be two categories of workers in Quebec, namely, those governed by the Canada Labour Code, which allows the use of scabs, and those governed by the Quebec Labour Code, which does not.

This bill is designed to put an end to the inequity between workers governed by the Quebec Labour Code and those governed by the Canada Labour Code. Only Quebec and British Columbia have legislation prohibiting the use of scabs. Four provinces, including Ontario, however, already have anti-scab provisions in their labour codes.

Let us recall that Mike Harris’s Conservative Ontario government, three of whose ministers may be found in today’s federal cabinet, shamefully legalized the use of scabs again.

In Quebec, the adoption of an anti-scab law goes back to December 1977, under René Lévesque’s Parti Québécois government. Getting his government to adopt this anti-scab legislation guaranteeing respect for workers was an impressive leap forward.

Coming at the end of a particularly tumultuous strike at the United Aircraft factory in Longueuil, this legislation, by seriously hindering employers who could not care less about their unionized employees, placed Quebec in the North American vanguard in this area.

Anti-scab legislation will be good for all workers, both in Quebec and elsewhere in the provinces and territories.

In New Brunswick, union leaders have already been asking for some time for anti-scab provisions in their labour code. Likewise in Manitoba and Saskatchewan, where the unions are trying to convince their New Democratic governments to adopt such measures.

In federal legislation, section 94(2.1) of the Canada Labour Code contains a prohibition respecting replacement workers, but only if an employer uses them with a view to undermining the union’s representational capacity.

This prohibition is very weak, because an employer simply has to go on recognizing the union in place and go on negotiating to avoid undermining the union’s representational capacity and it is entitled to use replacement workers.

In other words, if an employer refuses to negotiate while using replacement workers, the Canada Industrial Relations Board can prohibit their use. But all an employer has to do is negotiate or appear to be negotiating with the union to avoid this prohibition and go on using scabs. So we can see that this is a ridiculous provision and provides a loophole allowing the use of scabs.

The prohibition respecting the hiring of replacement workers during a labour dispute is therefore more necessary than ever.

The debate was important enough that the Minister of Labour showed up to debate against the bill. No surprise there. However he does defend the principles of class war. Something the unions will have to deal with if either bill fails to pass.

"We must consider another important principle. Let us go back to the negotiations I mentioned earlier. Some say that the employer's right to lock out employees offsets the union's right to strike, but that is not the case. The employer's right to continue operating during a strike corresponds to the employees' right not to go to work."

The point of a strike is to end production, to end the employers ability to operate. And here the truth is told. The provision to lock out which was once considered enough to balance the unions right to strike, has now been replaced with the owners right to hire scabs. And that my friends is class war.

Thus every strike should be considered the basis for a General Strike, since an injury to on, is an injury to all. The State and the capitalists understand and fear this. They understand class war better than the unions, whose purpose is to ameloriate workers demands for the interests of capital and its state.



Also See:

Labour Relations Board Scandal in Alberta

Ralph Klein; Tyson's Bum Boy

Telus Workers Defiant

Union Busting Alberta Style

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