Monday, November 21, 2022

CLAC Lobbies Provincial, Federal Government on Behalf of Members

Last fall, CLAC continued to meet with provincial and federal officials to promote members and our model of wall-to-wall bargaining as a better way to meet the province’s growing construction needs

By Ian DeWaard, Ontario Director

On November 16, CLAC cohosted a breakfast event at Queen’s Park together with CLAC-signatory contractors who are part of the Progressive Contractors Association of Canada (PCA).

Greetings were delivered by MPP John Fraser (interim leader of the Liberal Party), MPP Mike Schreiner (Green Party leader), and MPP David Smith (parliamentary assistant to the minister of labour, immigration, training, and skills development).

CLAC had the opportunity to address the reception as well, and introduced the union as follows: “CLAC is a trade union that represents more than 64,000 workers in Canada, nearly 18,000 of whom live and work here in Ontario. For 70 years, we’ve been advancing a progressive approach to labour relations that promotes worker agency, cooperative problem solving, and workplace partnership.

“We’re animated by a view of work, justice, and the sensible resolution of conflict. These views are rooted in principles that offer particular and compelling insights into the nature of work and the importance of dignity for the worker and for the workplace.”

CLAC also had opportunity to take its message to leaders of the federal government on November 16 and 17.

Many Ontario CLAC members work in the construction industry, and they are an essential part of building a prosperous, flourishing economy. Throughout the province, members are building schools, hospitals, municipal infrastructure, homes, roads, and mines.

The aging infrastructure in our communities means lots of work needs to get done in the coming years. In addition, the federal government has announced plans to increase Canada’s immigration rate to 500,000 newcomers per year, which too will demand more infrastructure, schools, hospitals, transportation, and housing.

Our key messages to government are the importance of fair tendering, about accessibility to work opportunity that doesn’t discriminate on the basis of which union a worker elects to belong to, and the need for continued investment in construction workforce development.

If Ontario is going to meet the challenge of finding qualified workers for the immense investment needed in the province, we believe there is work to be done to dismantle protectionist restrictions in construction labour markets. These restrictions, some new, and some long standing, serve the interests of a few.

But such limits have a demonstrable escalating effect on construction costs. These restrictions are costly, and the impact of a reduced number of bidders on major projects can add costs of 14 to 20 percent on major projects.

These restrictions also serve to limit worker access to these projects to the less than 30 percent of Ontario’s construction workforce that participate in the building trades labour model. In a time of worker and skill scarcity, such limitations are not only unfair to workers, but they also further drive up the costs of construction.

Like most stakeholders in the construction industry, CLAC is seized with the very acute problem of building and maintaining a strong and ready construction workforce able to meet the future building needs of our province. We are solution generators and have developed programs that serve as gateways to a construction career for future workers, that enhance the quality of on-site leadership and thus workplace culture, and that will encourage and enable success for apprentices who are on the road to highly rewarding journeyperson careers.

For all these reasons, we will continue our efforts to be a forceful voice for members as we continue to shape how work in Ontario’s construction industry is done best.

CLAC Lobbies Provincial, Federal Government on Behalf of Members

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