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The Liberal government under Premier Stephen McNeil and Health
Minister Leo Glavine are planning to introduce legislation on
Monday which would deny health care workers the right to
choose which union will represent them in collective
bargaining, as well as dictating some of the terms of their
contracts. Solidarity Halifax opposes this union-busting
legislation and the ongoing attacks on the labour movement by
the Liberals.
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This legislation is illegal. It violates freedom of
association and the Trade Union Act by allowing employers to
pick the union health care workers will belong to. Workers
have fought for generations for the right to a union of their
choice and to not have the employers interfere in the question
of representation.
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The Unions worked together over the summer and came up with a
proposal for a bargaining association, which would allow
workers to remain in the union of their choice, while
simplifying the number of contracts in health care and
streamlines the negotiation process. This process has been
used in British Columbia for several years and works well.
For Premier McNeil to suggest that this is the status quo in
Nova Scotia is a deliberate lie. Bargaining associations
remain the best way to protect public health care and
workers’ freedom of association. This show of
solidarity among different unions is to be celebrated and
Solidarity Halifax supports the call for bargaining
associations.
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This legislation is an attack on the entire labour movement
and will undermine free and fair collective bargaining.
Combined with Bills 30 and 37, which basically took away the
right to strike from 40,000 health care workers around the
province, and Bill 19, which weakened first collective
agreement negotiations, the Liberals are trying hard to
undermine the labour movement. With a hobbled labour
movement, income inequality and the gap between those of us
who work for a living and the rich few on top will continue to
grow.
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While the legislation will impact tens of thousands of health
care workers, and four unions (The Nova Scotia Nurses Union,
the Canadian Union of Public Employees, the Nova Scotia
Government and General Employees Union, and UNIFOR), it is
important to understand the goal of the Liberals in putting
this legislation forward. This bill is about breaking a
single union, the NSGEU, which represents the majority of
health care workers in the province and has regularly set the
public sector bargaining pattern. The NSGEU has taken
hundreds of strike votes over the past 5 years, and has been
willing to take wildcat strike action to defend its
members’ rights. The Liberals want to break one of the
most activist unions in the province in order to cripple
public sector workers bargaining power. A strong labour
movement helps put upward pressure on all workers’ wages
and working conditions, unionized or not. And in a province
with the second lowest average worker incomes in the country,
that is a good thing. A weaker labour movement means
increased downward pressure on wages and working conditions
for all.
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This legislation also specifically impacts women
disproportionately. About 80% of the health care workers that
would be covered by this legislation are women. As women
already make less money than men, this will significantly
further increase the gender income gap.
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As an anti-capitalist organization, Solidarity Halifax
supports workers struggling collectively for their rights,
jobs and livelihoods. We support an expansion of public
services and support workers democratic control of the
services. Instead of attacking front-line health care
workers, the Liberals should be focused on cutting the number
of over-paid managers in the health care system.
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Under capitalism, public services like health care and
education are constantly under attack by right-wing
politicians and corporations keen to cash in on
privatization. Only by working to understand how the economic
system of capitalism oppresses us can we work together to
begin to consider the ways to dismantle it.
. - With poor economic performance plaguing the province, the government needs a scapegoat and thus would have Nova Scotians believe that is the fault of the unions, and one union in particular. In fact, Nova Scotia has long been a low-wage and low-investment ghetto, where employer failure to invest in capital, worker training and research and development maintains the status quo. Crippling organized labour will do nothing to improve, and much to perpetuate, that scenario.
