Implement Recommendations of Commission of Inquiry into Voisey’s Bay,

The provincial government must send a clear message to the workers of this province – their labour rights will have real meaning.  

The 18-month strike at Voisey’s Bay exposed serious gaps in the province’s labour laws and it’s time to fix them.

The government can start by implementing recommendations contained in the Industrial Inquiry into the strike at Voisey’s Bay, Labrador.

The John Roil report made a number of key recommendations including changes to the province’s labour relations legislation which will improve the labour relations climate for the province, but also right the growing imbalance in power between workers and their employers.

The report also called for the protection of Canadian labour relations values and a broader discussion on the role of multinational corporations in our economy and in particular on labour relations and collective bargaining.

The panel – made up by three labour/employment relations lawyers with considerable expertise in their fields (John Roil, Randall Earle and Brian Gatien) – unanimously recommended that government re-examine the mechanisms by which it facilitates collective bargaining to take into account the “need to ensure that such corporations respond to Canadian labour relations values” and “the relative economic weight of the parties in the collective bargaining relationship.”

This is a significant and critically important recommendation and supports the Federation of Labour’s submission to the inquiry that globalization, multinational corporations and our changing economy mean we must ensure laws are updated to protect working people and their labour rights.

In addition, the report’s recommendation dealing with the option of a binding arbitration panel to settle disputes where collective bargaining has truly failed and the strike-lock-out provision has proved ineffective finds the correct balance between respecting the right to strike and lockout provisions and using alternative dispute settling mechanisms.

The Inquiry panel recommended that the test or threshold to actually send a matter to a binding arbitration panel be rather high allowing for traditional bargaining to occur. As long as both sides play by the rules and accepted labour relations practices, this option will never have to be used.

The Federation of Labour has been deeply concerned for some time that our labour laws are no longer effective enough to meet the challenges of today’s labour relations climate and in turn no longer protect the right of workers to free collective bargaining.

Having said that, our Federation was disappointed the Inquiry did not go further by recommending the need for anti-scab legislation. The Inquiry, however, did make a number of strong statements about the use of scab labour and its impact on collective bargaining and labour relations.

The Inquiry also noted that the use of scab labour enabled “Vale to go forward without the economic pressure which the traditional notion of strike presupposes…It is obviously a concern for a regulator if the forces that are designed to push one or the other parties to a settlement position cease to exist. If the use of replacement workers is seen by regulators to undermine the ability of employees and their unions to both engage in meaningful collective bargaining and impose economic sanction against their employer, then the pressure for rebalancing will be very substantial.”

If implemented, the recommendations of this Inquiry could place our province on the leading edge of how modern day societies coping with globalization protect the rights of its citizens and workers.

I expect government to act on these recommendations including those that do not require legislative changes but would enhance the role of services provided by the Labour Relations Agency and the Labour Relations Board.

For the government not to act in this case would be sending the absolute wrong message about its commitment to enhancing and improving the labour relations climate in our province.

However, the recommendations are just the beginning of a longer-run process of modernizing labour laws in order to deal with the challenges posed by globalization and multinational corporations. 

The Vale strike was an especially painful lesson in how global corporations can use their diversity and geographic reach to undermine the wages and conditions of workers in any particular country. It’s not just the workers who suffer, but entire communities lose their ability to get fair value from the resources which they own. Faced with such a lopsided bargaining relationship, government must intervene to level the playing field. 

Professor Gregor Murray’s research commissioned by the Inquiry provides valuable information and analysis and should form the foundation for a broader discussion on the challenges posed by globalization and multinationals and their impact on labour relations and how government should be responding to these matters.

The Voisey’s Bay Industrial Inquiry Report can be found here http://www.gov.nl.ca/LRA/voisey_bay.html