Friday, July 27, 2018

CLAC, Industry Stakeholders Urge BC NDP to Abandon Plans for Labour Monopoly

Langley, BC—CLAC and a group of eight significant industry stakeholders, including business associations and independent unions, have submitted an open letter to BC Premier John Horgan and the NDP cabinet, urging the government to reverse its decision to apply restrictive project labour agreements to public infrastructure projects.

On July 16, the BC NDP announced the deal they have negotiated with the Allied Infrastructure and Related Construction Council (AIRCC), a conglomerate of American-based Building Trade Unions (BTU), which will force all workers on public infrastructure projects to join the BTU within 30 days of employment.

The open letter, sent July 26, has generated a lot of media interest in BC, as the ramifications of the so-called community benefits agreement become fully understood.

“We think that it’s probably unconstitutional, never mind just simply unfair, and so we’ll be pursuing options might be available for us to test that,” CLAC Executive Director Wayne Prins said in an interview with Global News.

The Times-Colonist newspaper questions the legality of the government’s plan in its July 27 editorial, Coercing union membership goes too far.

CLAC maintains that workers should have the right to choose their union representation, and that public projects should remain open to all British Columbians.

CLAC, Industry Stakeholders Urge BC NDP to Abandon Plans for Labour Monopoly

You might be interested in