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Atlantic Regional Director Lana Payne joined with Federation of Labour President Mary Shortall to meet with Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Tom Marshall on June 3 to voice opposition to Bill 22. The bill, introduced without any consultation with labour, reverses recent changes to the province’s labour laws including the ability to unionize when 65 per cent of workers sign union cards.
Payne spearheaded the labour movement’s involvement in a four-year tripartite review of labour relations legislation that led to the amendments in 2012.
“The government may want to dress this up as being about democracy and secret ballot votes, but really what they have done is made it tougher for workers to exercise their Charter right to join a union and giving the green light to employers to continue to intimidate and interfere with that process,” said Payne.
She notes that it is laughable that a government would fall for employer groups’ arguments that this is about democracy for their employees. A union certification occurs in the workplace with representatives of the employer looking on while workers cast their ballots. Employers also have ample opportunity to interfere and intimidate employees between the time an application is filed with the Labour Board and when the vote is held.
“The best situation in a workplace is for workers to have a collective voice so they can come together and bargain collectively to improve their conditions of work democratically, and the government has just made it a lot tougher to do that,” said Payne.
“This government has given in to the same employer groups who argue against decent minimum wages, improvements to labour standards and for the use of cheap, workers from foreign countries with few rights,” said the union leader.
Premier Marshall agreed to consider the arguments presented by the union leaders.
