Unifor has formally rejected the federal government’s review of the Canada Labour Code, calling the consultation process “wholly insufficient” and “fundamentally flawed” in a submission filed with Employment and Social Development Canada.
The union’s submission responds to Ottawa’s 35-day consultation on modernizing the federal labour relations framework, which covers 12 topics including collective bargaining, strike timelines, section 107 of the Code, health and safety, artificial intelligence and automation, employee misclassification and contract flipping.
“The assumptions at the heart of this consultation reveal a deep misunderstanding of how labour relations actually work in this country. The power of workers to take strike action is what makes employers negotiate, and firm deadlines help both parties reach a deal,” said Lana Payne, Unifor National President. “Unifor has and will engage in good faith in this flawed process, but we can hear the dog whistles of union-busting weaved throughout the government’s questions and reference documents.”
Unifor said it bargains a collective agreement nearly every day of the week across Canada, and the vast majority of those negotiations end in a successfully bargained deal. The union told the government that, for the most part, the existing structures work.
Section 107 use draws criticism
The union criticized the recent use of section 107 of the Code to end lawful strikes and impose binding arbitration. Unifor said the practice forces a contract onto workers that they did not negotiate, and argued it violates the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
“Free and fair collective bargaining drives social, economic and political change in Canada, values which are more core to ‘national interest’ than companies being temporarily inconvenienced due to the rare instances of labour disputes,” said Payne. “Our union spearheaded negotiating paid domestic violence leave at the bargaining table, a lifesaving provision which has now been written into nearly every labour code in the country. Progress doesn’t just happen; workers bargain it.”
Unifor pointed to a recent ruling from the International Court of Justice in The Hague, which affirmed that the right to strike is a protected activity of trade unions under international law.
Local submissions filed alongside
Thirteen Unifor locals also filed their own submissions. They represent workers in road transportation, rail, airlines and marine transportation, energy, telecommunications and media.
Unifor is Canada’s largest private sector union, representing about 320,000 workers. It is also the largest union in the federally regulated private sector, which includes road, rail, air and marine transportation, media, aerospace, energy and telecommunications. Nearly 70,000 Unifor members work under federal jurisdiction.
