State of the Union

移民电工 · 发表于 2010-7-4 15:50

State of the Union
Anti-labour attitude feeds worker shortage
New (and old) challenges for organized labour

On the face of it, there’s nothing unusual about Jonathan McNeil.
He was 24 years old when he moved to Alberta from Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. After a couple weeks working on oilrigs, he began his apprenticeship as an electrician. Over the past 10 years, Edmonton became his home

Although the story of a young man from the Maritimes moving to Alberta is almost iconic now, what makes McNeil unusual as an Albertan is that he belongs to a union.

Alberta has the lowest rate of unionization in Canada. With only 24 per cent of its workforce covered by collective agreements, the province falls far short of the Canadian average of 32 per cent. Union organizers can only dream of attaining Quebec levels, which a 2005 study by Statistics Canada pegs at 40 per cent.

Gil McGowan, president of the Alberta Federation of Labour, says those numbers are a direct result of Alberta’s culture and laws. The federal Temporary Foreign Workers program doesn’t help either. "As a result of employer-friendly labour laws," he says, "we have a much lower percentage of the workforce that’s unionized and have less clout at the bargaining table."

Getting off the books

McGowan’s comments come at the tail end of the May Week Labour Arts Festival, home to many events designed precisely to bring people together to learn and organize,

"In a province like Alberta," he says, "there are certain stereotypes and mythologies that are propagated by the people that are in power. The Conservatives and their business supporters have been successful in entrenching negative stereotypes about unions. Those negative stereotypes do make it more difficult for us to organize new members."

In addition to the usual Conservative opposition to unions, the labour movement now faces new challenges, including what McGowan describes as employers bypassing unionized workers.

McNeil, the electrician from Cape Breton, was unemployed from July to February this year. He says that despite the widely publicized need for skilled workers on oilsands projects and in almost every other sector in the province, many unionized workers face a long wait to get re-employed once their contracts finish.

"If I was to get laid off right now, I’d probably wait at least four or five months on the books before I’d get a call," McNeil says, referring to the union practice of listing unemployed members in books at the union hall and giving preference to those who’ve been out of work the longest.

By McGowan’s estimate, there are roughly 2,000 unemployed unionized electricians in Alberta. "The numbers vary from trade to trade," he says, "but there are literally thousands of Albertans in this province who are either unemployed or underemployed, who are being cut out of the picture simply because they hold a union card."

How is that possible in Alberta? Don’t we have the country’s lowest unemployment rate–3.6 per cent, according to Statistics Canada?

McGowan agrees that the province has a tight labour market, but argues that the situation is more nuanced than the general perception. He claims the situation for Alberta’s skilled labourers isn’t quite so dire. Even if every single one of the roughly 2,000 electricians who are currently unemployed were offered a position, he says, the unions could tap their network of locals across the country, something employers have not yet asked them to do.

The recruitment drive

Many Alberta companies already recruit nationally. Canadian Natural Resources Ltd, a major oil and gas development company, tours the country to let contractors know they need workers in Alberta. Lynn Zeidler, vice-president of construction management for Canadian Natural’s Horizon site, says the company asks contractors to search for employees in Alberta first, then the rest of Canada.

"The cost of transporting people from outside the country is significantly more," Zeidler says. "The wages on the site are the same regardless of where you come from, so you are always motivated as a contractor to supply your workforce from the resources at hand."

But contractors are going farther afield in their search for labour. Patricia Morissette is a senior consultant for the federal government’s Temporary Foreign Workers program within Human Resources Development Canada (HRDC). When an employer applies to hire labour from outside the country, it’s her department that decides whether the labour shortage is severe enough. Contracts are generally short and workers are not eligible for citizenship. She says the cost of hiring out-of-province or foreign workers is so prohibitive that there’s simply no need for the government to monitor whether employers bypass available workers within the province.

Of course, there are loopholes. Nothing prevents an employer from advertising and then simply not hiring unionized workers. (Zeidler admits her company does not get involved in finding out how many Albertans applied for the job before the contractor looked elsewhere.)

The Temporary Foreign Workers Program also takes a hands-off approach when it comes to inquiring how hard employers look for labour. Employers are only required to advertise the job for seven days on the HRDC Job Bank website, says Morissette, adding that neither do they inquire about the number of applications they received or question the employer’s hiring process.

"The foreign workers program," McGowan says, "is being used as a tool by a number of energy and construction firms to avoid working with unionized workers in this province."

He sees the foreign workers program as a union-busting measure and is concerned that, unlike McNeil, who was able to come to Alberta and make a life for himself, foreign workers are not given that chance.

移民电工 · 发表于 2010-7-4 15:52

Division 10
Collective Bargaining

Notice to commence collective bargaining
59(1) When a certified bargaining agent, an employer or an
employers’ organization wishes to commence collective bargaining,

(a) the certified bargaining agent may serve on the employer or employers’ organization, or

(b) the employer or employers’ organization may serve on the certified bargaining agent,

a notice to commence collective bargaining.

(2) Subject to section 43(1), when a collective agreement is in effect, either party to the collective agreement may, not less than 60 days and not more than 120 days preceding the expiry of the term of the collective agreement or within any longer period that may be provided for in the collective agreement, by notice in writing, require the other party to the collective agreement to commence collective bargaining.

移民电工 · 发表于 2010-7-4 16:01

Checking the Action Files 0703-11983, 0703-12112, 0707-14019, in regards to the 4 Unions from the Alberta Building Trades Charter challenge of the Alberta Labour Laws.
Boilermakers
Carpenters
Electricians
Pipefitters

I will check to see when the BC Charter challenge started, to see how long it took to win.
The Charter challenge of the Alberta Labour Code was announced in October 2007, after the Carpenters and other Trades brought the issue to the forefront with the Alberta Labour Code Funeral.

Curious to see how well this challenge will proceed, in light of the fact that the IBEW isn't behaving in a way that would make them want this challenge to go ahead.

CUPE Local 30 is currently thinking of also doing a Charter challenge of the Labour Code. The reason is because the IBEW 1007 is before the Labour Board trying to steal members from CUPE by stating that the IBEW should represent all workers of a waste water treatment site.

So, the Action File  0707-14019 is the IBEW 424 file.
Nothing happening yet, as they have just finished going through the Case Mangagement hearings. The Procedure Record goes like this:

2007 – October 31  * Statement of Claim filed by IBEW 424
2008 – March 11  * Statement of Defense filed by the Queen
2008 – May 16  * Consent Order filed by CLRA, ECAA, BCA & ICA
2008 – May 29  * Statement of Defense filed by CLRA, ECAA, BCA & ICA
2008 – May 30  * Hearing - Case Management
2008 – June 10  * Order to extend time
2008 – July 17  * Hearing – Case Management – Justice disqualified
2008 – July 21  * Case Management
2008 – Sept 5  * Case Management
2008 – Oct 20  * Case Management
2008 – Nov 19  * Affidavit of Records filed by Queen
2008 – Nov 21  * Case Management
2008 – Dec 9  * Case Management
2009 – Jan 22 * Affidavit of Records filed by IBEW 424
2009 – Jan 28  *  Affidavit of Records filed by Boilermakers Contractors
2009 – Jan 29  *  Affidavit of Records filed by Industrial Contractors Association
2009 – Feb 17  * See 0703-11983
2009 – Feb 18  * See 0703-11983
2009 – Mar 10  * See 0703-11983
2009 -  April 3  *  Affidavit of Records filed by CLRA

Incomplete information. Need Action File  0703-11983

But as it stands, the evidence has been gathered along with some Hearings for Case Management...

...Just have to wait for the “actual” hearings to hopefully work towards the deletion or amendment of some of the oppressive Alberta Labour Laws.

移民电工 · 发表于 2010-7-5 13:57

IBEW member will have new issue

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[电工杂谈] State of the Union