'The government is asking the wrong question,' says president Bea Bruske amid Canada Labour Code amid consultations

The Canadian Labour Congress (CLC) is warning federally regulated employers that a second round of Canada Labour Code consultations could entrench, rather than eliminate, the labour minister's power to end lawful strikes.

The CLC's second submission to the Code review renews its call to repeal section 107, the provision allowing the labour minister to order employees back to work or refer disputes to binding arbitration.

The particular section reads: “The Minister, where the Minister deems it expedient, may do such things as to the Minister seem likely to maintain or secure industrial peace and to promote conditions favourable to the settlement of industrial disputes or differences and to those ends the Minister may refer any question to the Board or direct the Board to do such things as the Minister deems necessary.”

The CLC argues Ottawa has used the power repeatedly to cut short legal strikes and lockouts at federally regulated employers, including railways, ports and airlines.

"The government is asking the wrong question," CLC President Bea Bruske said in the submission. "You don't fix a problem by writing a manual for it. The federal government has repeatedly used section 107 to undermine free collective bargaining. The answer isn't to codify that power. It's to repeal it."

The CLC said the government's current consultation approach asks how the...

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