Bill 80 to revamp Saskatchewan’s construction labour relations act
Pure political theatre.” Those were the words that came to Harley Friesen’s mind when about 200 construction workers supporting the Saskatchewan Provincial Building & Construction Trades Council (BCTC) union group gathered at the provincial legislative building in Regina on June 17.
They were there to participate in public hearings for proposed changes to the province’s Construction Industry Labour Relations Act, 1992 (CILRA).
“Those guys knew there wouldn’t be room for 200 construction workers in the hearings room,” said Friesen, project manager and co-founder of Westridge Construction, a Regina-based commercial and light-industrial building firm. “They showed up just long enough to cause a big stink for the cameras.”
Inside, the Saskatchewan Party government’s Standing Committee on Human Services was beginning public hearings on Bill 80, with the BCTC first to testify. Outside, the workers voiced discontent about the bill and what they considered the government’s attempt to exclude them from the hearings.
Bill 80 — the Construction Industry Labour Relations Amendment Act, 2009 — would help modernize the industry by allowing for more competition in both union certification and construction work, said Friesen, who spoke in favour of the proposed changes on behalf of the Merit Contractors Association of Saskatchewan.
“It’s about freedom of choice,” he said. “Do we need alternate unions? Yeah, and we need more companies in this province, too, some that will be my competition. There’s more than enough work for the foreseeable future to go around.”
The bill would open the door to companies that deal exclusively with multi-trade or “wall-to-wall” unions, such as the Christian Labour Association of Canada (CLAC) or Communications, Energy and Paperworkers unions.
Under present legislation, journeymen and apprentice workers on unionized sites are required to join the single-trade union that represents their particular trade, such as the United Association of Plumbers and Pipefitters. Collective agreements are bargained on a provincewide basis between single-trade unions on one side and a government-designated team of management, the Representative Employee Organization (REO), on the other.
Bill 80 would change those rules in a number of ways. First, it would allow an employer to be certified by any trade union on either a multi-trade, wall-to-wall basis or on a single trade basis, rather than on a single-trade basis represented by one or more single-trade unions alone.
Second, the bill would allow an employer to choose the REO that would represent it when working with a single-craft union. It would also allow an employer to negotiate site-by-site collective agreements with a multi-trade union outside of the provincewide bargaining system, thereby avoiding the need for an REO.
Third, the bill would allow an employer to file an abandonment complaint against a trade union that has been “inactive in promoting and enforcing its bargaining rights against the employer for a period of at least three years before the application.”
“Philosophically, the current government feels that neither of those two decisions should fall properly in the purview of government, but into the hands of the employees and employers affected,” said Mike Carr, assistant deputy minister with the Ministry of Advanced Education, Employment and Labour.
The proposed changes do not abolish the provincewide bargaining system but rather “open up the playing field by removing the monopoly from the building trades unions,” said Carr.
Michael Fougère, president of the Saskatchewan Construction Association, said the industrial and commercial side of the construction industry supports Bill 80.
“Trade-by-trade, the CILRA has worked well but other contractors and other owners would like to use the wall-to-wall,” he said.
He dismissed the notion Bill 80 would lead to the “de-skilling” of the province’s tradespeople.
“That’s really an unfair discussion to have — that’s all regulated by the Apprenticeship and Trade Certification Commission,” said Fougère.
However, provincial NDP leader Dwain Lingenfelter, who served as deputy premier of Saskatchewan from 1995 to 2000, believes Bill 80 is bad public policy that could destabilize the industry and erode its apprenticeship program for years to come.
“Bill 80 is an unnecessary answer to a question no one asked,” he said. “The reason we have the legislation we do now is to fix things that weren’t working in the first place. Why would you go back and take a chance at being in shambles in a couple of years when you have a system that’s working extremely well now, by everybody’s own analysis?”
The pressure to enact Bill 80 could be coming from either construction companies outside of Saskatchewan borders, said Lingenfelter, such as Alberta-based Ledcor CMI, which deals exclusively with CLAC, or from within the Saskatchewan Party itself as a means of settling an “old score.”
For Terry Parker, business manager with the BCTC, the abandonment provision within Bill 80 is a concern and he believes none of the bill was very-well thought out.
“We’re not against the abandonment provision but we are against the way it is written — it should not be retroactive. Bill 80 also creates two parallel systems: One for our contractors who’ll have to compete under the CILRA, while outside contractors who deal with the wall-to-wall unions work within the Trades Union Act. It would be an unfair advantage for them,” he said.
While Carr doesn’t predict that much change, he does expect to see more participation in the marketplace if the bill is passed.
“The enactment of Bill 80 will create a significant opportunity for new entrants in the industry,” he said. “I don’t know how Bill 80 would hurt the (single-craft unions). If the members see value in the representation that they have in that Building Trades Union, I’m confident that we’ll continue to see them expand and grow.”
Bill 80 moves back to the legislature for its third and final reading when the house resumes on Oct. 21, 2009.
Andrew Warren is a Regina-based freelance writer.
