Defeat of anti-scab bill = no end strikes
From MP Carol Hughes, Algoma-Manitoulin-Kapuskasing
MP Carol Hughes, Algoma-Manitoulin-Kapuskasing
It might come as no surprise that Liberals and Conservatives have killed another anti-scab bill. A bill that promoted measures that would have made illegal the unfair hiring of replacement workers during labour disputes.
Last Wednesday’s vote against Private Member`s Bill C-396 marked the fourth time since 2005 that the Liberals have abandoned workers and killed legislation that would reduce the length of strikes and reduce the number of confrontations on picket lines.
For Northern Ontarians, who are no strangers to damaging labour disputes like Sudbury’s Vale strike, anti-scab legislation is an important issue. Two Northern Ontario MPs, Anthony Rota and Greg Rickford, voted against the bill showing how out of touch they are with the needs and sentiments of the workers that are the lifeblood of our economy and their communities.
Supporting scab labour, like the replacement workers hired in the recent Vale-Inco Sudbury strike, is a recipe for increasing the tensions that any job action can create and does not promote the kind of cooperative environment needed for negotiating.
In the case of Vale-Inco, management’s hiring of scab workers lengthened an already gruelling strike for members of United Steelworkers 6500, according to John Closs of the Sudbury & District Labour Council.
To further illustrate the need for these measures, while Liberals and Conservatives were standing in the House of Commons to vote down the latest anti-scab bill, workers in Voisey’s Bay, Newfoundland were still walking picket lines and watching scabs undermine their efforts and divide their communities. The employees there have been involved in a bitter dispute with Vale-Inco for more than a year. Just as we saw in Sudbury, the Brazilian mining giant has continued operations using scab labour and it is the absence of effective regulations from the federal government that allows them to to do so.
When management brings in replacement workers it creates a toxic environment in the community and destroys the good will that is needed to negotiate in these kinds of disputes. I’m very disappointed that there are MPs who chose to ignore the real value of anti-scab measures.
Anti-scab legislation is a proven measure that is not entirely new to Canada. Two provinces, B.C. and Quebec, have anti-scab legislation and the outcome has been fewer, shorter, and less hostile disputes. Instead of following their lead, the federal government is happy to maintain a status-quo that encourages companies to avoid bargaining.
Once again, the Conservatives and Liberals are standing in the way of progress. The outcome of the vote on this bill is both extremely disappointing and a betrayal of hardworking Canadians.
