Employers reject replacement worker law, push for final offer votes
The debate over anti-replacement worker legislation is heating up in Newfoundland and Labrador following the appointment of an industrial inquiry to look into an ongoing dispute at a nickel mine in Voisey’s Bay.
More than 200 workers at the Vale mine have been on strike for 16 months. Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Danny Williams recently appointed the three-person inquiry to, among other things, make recommendations on whether provincial legislation needs to be changed to resolve the standoff.
The United Steelworkers (USW), which represents the workers, and the Newfoundland and Labrador Federation of Labour hope that includes a call for anti-replacement worker legislation.
“This is a brutal strike,” said Boyd Bussey, USW National Representative. “If these workers hadn’t been replaced with scabs, this would have been over long ago.”
Bussey said it has been “difficult” to get Vale to bargain since the strike started and he blames it squarely on the company’s ability to hire replacement workers. He said the company started by replacing striking workers at the power plant, then the security guards and catering staff, and finally the miners.
“It wouldn’t have been feasible for them to carry on otherwise,” said Bussey. “If one employer is getting away with it, all of the multi-nationals in the province will want it.”
But that’s just the problem with anti-replacement worker legislation, according to the Newfoundland and Labrador Employers' Council (NLEC). Executive director Richard Alexander said such a law would shift the balance of power in collective bargaining in favour of unions.
“The basic premise in collective bargaining is that both parties have to be able to survive a strike,” he said. “Unionized workers receive non-taxable strike pay, or in some cases they can collect employment insurance, or they can leave the work site and work elsewhere without risk of losing their job. Employers, in the meantime, have to maintain some level of production.”
Alexander said rarely has an issue galvanized the province’s employers like this one. He said a law banning replacement workers in Newfoundland and Labrador would “destroy labour relations” between them and unionized employees.
“There have been a lot of issues with employment legislation over time,” he said. “But this is the one employers are willing to stand up against.”
Alexander said the number of strikes per year in Canada has sharply declined over the past 30 years, a credit to legislative changes that have evolved to make the collective bargaining process more effective.
According the Human Resources Development Canada, in 1976 there were 1,040 work stoppages resulting in more than 11 million days not worked. By contrast, in 2008, there were 187 work stoppages and just over 875,500 days not worked.
Alexander said this suggests that left on their own to “fight it out,” most unions and employers eventually reach agreement.
“It’s best if they can come to an arrangement by themselves,” he said.
B.C. and Quebec are the only provinces with anti-replacement worker legislation in Canada; it existed briefly in Ontario from 1993 to 1995. Research published in the journal Canadian Public Policy in 2009 suggests anti-replacement worker legislation increases the number of work stoppages and decreases their length.
According to Alexander, employers in Newfoundland and Labrador would rather see final offer vote legislation introduced. It would allow unionized workers to vote on a final offer through a secret ballot.
Meanwhile, the USW would like to see the industrial inquiry also recommend legislation that allows either party to call for binding arbitration. Currently in Newfoundland and Labrador, binding arbitration is only an option if both sides agree to it.
“There needs to be a change so that after a lengthy dispute — a year or more — parties can apply for arbitration and it must be binding.”
