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State of the Union0 ^* Y+ ]" c& j" `1 K9 \! i! W
Anti-labour attitude feeds worker shortage
( |' N8 Z& H" ]2 C. J; @* eNew (and old) challenges for organized labour
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On the face of it, there’s nothing unusual about Jonathan McNeil.6 w# X1 L7 S* m4 x6 a7 v- ?
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
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9 n1 c, j5 I7 {- i7 o4 j" LAlthough 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.
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2 a+ E! q% |7 z; J- T) x. f& Q; o6 a: ?: AAlberta 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.: ]/ _8 R& R5 O) m
+ n3 g& n6 H+ T( ?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."" b1 s' j6 c1 I; p; l# s& ~' d/ M
- B! e& a& s0 `( QGetting off the books
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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,) m; F2 D% `$ a# l2 ?6 z+ \# \ G
- F. i4 u/ E! R4 i* ]"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."
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$ L* q! j( J. l/ Q6 JIn addition to the usual Conservative opposition to unions, the labour movement now faces new challenges, including what McGowan describes as employers bypassing unionized workers.
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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.8 C& a& Y* T% G9 [7 ~) S8 C5 i
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"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.
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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."
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How is that possible in Alberta? Don’t we have the country’s lowest unemployment rate–3.6 per cent, according to Statistics Canada?" L+ M# ^# K5 x) ~/ f- {
5 ~4 I; z: Z6 k, G$ S% jMcGowan 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.( g, I3 Z! q) l- c$ ^
8 V8 k3 l. A: M+ {The recruitment drive2 H0 ?# X2 s; I C+ Y
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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.
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"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."
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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.
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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.)
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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.3 S& y3 k8 o# ~; Q' B
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"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."( w2 e* v* k3 O# g
# T" Y' F" `. ^& t! A0 DHe 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. |
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发表于 2010-7-4 15:50
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