Using replacement workers nearly doubles length of work stoppages, new report reveals

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This article was published 26/01/2024 (623 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

As the NDP government considers retooling provincial labour laws to include a ban on replacement workers, a report released Friday found strikes in Manitoba lasted nearly twice as long when replacement workers were used.

The report by Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives’ Manitoba senior researcher Niall Harney found replacement workers were used in 34.7 per cent of strikes between 2016 and 2023.

Strikes using replacement workers lasted an average of 45 days during that time. Strikes in which they were not used lasted an average of 23.2 days, the report found.

Banning replacement workers would encourage more co-operative bargaining between employers and workers “with minimal broader economic costs,” Harney said in a news release.

The report is based on provincial labour statistics, as well as 12 interviews with rank-and-file union members, union organizers and union negotiators.

Workers involved in strikes and lockouts in Manitoba reported issues with workplace safety and long-term damage to labour-management relations resulting from the use of replacement workers, the report said.

Labour Minister Malaya Marcelino said last month the provincial government has asked its labour-management review committee to look at banning the use of replacement workers as part of potential changes to Manitoba labour laws.

Business leaders — including the Manitoba Employers Council and the Manitoba Chambers of Commerce — have said banning temporary replacements is unnecessary and that either side in a labour dispute can apply for binding arbitration after 60 days of a work stoppage.

Another change being considered by the NDP government that would simplify union certification was also reviewed by the the CCPA report.

It said returning to a single-step, simple majority certification process makes it easier for workers to form unions.

It found the introduction of two-step, secret ballot vote union certification in 2016 caused the five-year average for union certification applications to drop from 38 per year (2010-11 to 2015-16) to 28 per year (2016-17 to 2022-23).

Success rates over the same period dropped from 63 per cent to 58 per cent, the report said.

Employers, it said, were found to have committed unfair labour practices for intimidation, coercion or other forms of unfair influence in 10 cases involving union organizing drives since 2000.

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca

CCPA: The Case for Rebalancing Manitoba’s Labour Relations