Canadian Labour Reporter

1 Canadian HR Reporter, a Thomson Reuters business 2014 APRIL 7, 2014 LABOUR BRIEFS Battle over Bill C-4 / Suncor loses random drug testing case . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 COLLECTIVE AGREEMENTS • Dakota Ojibway Tribal Council, Winnipeg. Six per cent wage hike for police . . . . . 3 • Canadian Forest Products, Prince George, B.C. Yearly cash payouts . . . . . . . . . . . 3 • Queen's University, Kingston, Ont. Shift premium for large classes . . . . . . . . . . 4 • Greater London International Airport Authority, London, Ont. $750 signing bonus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 • Grande Yellowhead Public School, Edson, Alta. Double time-and-a-half for all holiday shifts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 • Canadian Union of Public Employees, Ottawa. Bilingual bonus . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 ARBITRATION AWARDS • Who foots the bill for safety shoes?. . . . 6 • Paramedic gets too personal . . . . . . . . 8 ON LABOUR-REPORTER.COM Saskatchewan prepares to raise its minimum wage and the United Auto Workers adds 9,000 U.S.-based members. Visit www.labour-reporter.com for daily news stories. Follow us on Twitter @labourreporter. And don't forget — all collective agreement summaries on labour-reporter.com now include links to the full agreement. UPCOMING ISSUES Does privacy trump safety? A recent judgment says yes, and ruled Suncor Energy in Alberta does not have the right to subject its oil sands workers to random drug and alcohol testing. But the battle isn't over yet, as the energy company has vowed to appeal the decision. Could the union's victory be short-lived? CLR takes an in-depth look at the landmark case in our upcoming issue. | by LIZ FOSTER | PROVINCIAL GOVERNMENTS ON both of Canada's coasts recently met long-last- ing labour disputes with a legislative response. Unions across the country worry workers' rights will soon be lost in legislation. Back-to-work legislation was in- troduced in the Port Metro Vancouver truckers' strike after weeks of disrup- tion from 250 unionized and 1,000 non- union workers. The legislation — which called for a 90-day cooling off period — included potential fines of up to $400 a day for unionized truckers and $10,000 a day for the union itself if they refused to return to work. "This legislation is be- ing tabled reluctantly and comes after multiple at- tempts over recent weeks to end the dispute and get Port Metro Vancouver back to full capacity," said Shir- ley Bond, British Colum- bia's labour minister, in a statement following the bill's introduc- tion. "The disruption at Canada's largest and busiest port is impacting our econ- omy, jobs and our trading reputation." Unifor reached a deal with the prov- ince, the federal government and Port Metro Vancouver only days later but Gavin McGarrigle, Unifor's B.C. area di- rector, said the threat of legislative ac- tion is a serious one. The second the government an- nounced its intentions to table back- to-work legislation, negotiations evap- orated, he said. "What it did was make it far, far more difficult for us to reach an agree- ment," McGarrigle said. "Immediately the employers started getting phone calls from their customers and the ship- pers telling them, under no uncertain terms, 'Don't agree to anything. Don't agree to one penny more.' In essence, 'We'll let the government do the dirty work for us.' It's just not the right way to proceed in collective bargaining." Had a deal not been reached before the bill passed, Unifor was pre- pared to stand behind its members in the face of the legislation. "Our members had no intention of going back to work or being bullied or swayed," McGarrigle said. "We were going to stand firm on behalf of those workers and we were de- termined to reach a fair deal." Complicating matters was the fact that as many as 1,000 of the striking truckers were not represented by the union and would have been unaffected by the legislation. But unionized or not, McGarrigle said, back-to-work legisla- tion affects all workers. "People are having their rights taken away," he said. "Back-to-work legisla- tion is just misusing the power of the Lost in legislation Unions worry as back-to-work legislation crops up across Canada PM #40065782 Continued on page 7 "It's not collective bargaining, it's blackmail bargaining." IN THIS ISSUE

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