NOTEWORTHY NEWS ABOUT ISSUES AFFECTING WORKING PEOPLE HERE AND ABROAD
IKEA workers need your solidarity It’s been a year since nearly 350 unionized workers at IKEA’s Richmond store were locked out of their jobs by management. At issue is IKEA’s drive to create a two-tier wage structure. Studies show that paying new employees lower wages than those who were on staff prior to the switch is not in workers’ best interests. A two-tier system results in higher turnover among newer employees, a demoralized workforce, lower productivity, and it gives corporations an incentive to increase the number of part-timers. Over time, a two-tier system can permanently lower wages across an entire industry. “These workers have been on the picket line for 12 months now,” says B.C. Federation of Labour president Jim Sinclair. “We must not forget that they are walking not just for themselves, but for good jobs for all of us.” The Richmond store is highly profitable, he says. In fact, this location – like the Coquitlam store and all IKEA outlets in the world – is directly owned by one of the top 100 wealthiest families on the planet. “I urge you not shop at either IKEA store, or online,” says Sinclair. “Please tell all your friends and family that shopping at IKEA must stop until this issue is resolved.”
Right-to-Work showing cracks in the wall
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Not satisfied with just banning ebruary was a good strikes, Alberta’s Conservative govmonth for labour ernment decided last December to unions and the mempass legislation ditching binding arbibers they represent. tration as an option. In its place, they First, in Ottawa, said they’d enforce a four-year deal, the Supreme Court of with wage freezes in the first two Canada rejected a fedyears, followed by one per cent pay eral employee’s request to refuse to be hikes in each of 2016 and 2017. represented by their union. But in his judgment, Court of The plaintiff in this case effectively Queen’s Bench Justice Denny Thomas wanted to remove the union’s abilruled the ill-designed law had the ity to represent them in collective potential to cause long-term harm to bargaining, grievances, or any other labour relations in Alberta. labour relations. Moreover, he slammed the governThis ruling by Canada’s highest ment’s entire approach to bargaining, court upheld a core labour principle saying he doubted “whether those – once a majority of workers vote for negotiations were ever conducted in a union to represent them, that union good faith, or were merely camouflage becomes the exclusive bargaining for a differagent for all employent agenda.” ees in that group. The final Then, on Canada’s highest court has major vicValentine’s Day, the in labour movement upheld a core principle – once tory February witnessed another a majority of workers vote for labour victory in the courts came this – this time in Alberta. for union representation, the time, not in A barely two- union becomes the exclusive legal chammonth-old law that bargaining agent for all bers, but in gave the province the court complete authority to employees in that group. of public impose a contract on opinion. public sector union Ontario’s official opposition – the workers was put on hold by Alberta’s Progressive Conservative (PC) party top court. – introduced a set of policies in 2012 The 22,000 union members affectthat would result, if they formed goved by this rights-stripping law – social ernment, in radical reforms to existworkers, correctional officers, shering provincial labour laws. iffs and many other frontline workSpecifically, they wanted to bring ers – haven’t been allowed to strike in many U.S.-style restrictions on since 1977. Instead, they could resort labour’s power, including “right-toto binding arbitration as an option, work” legislation. should collective bargaining fail.
Right-to-work laws legally entrench the problem of what experts call “free riders.” These are workers who receive the benefit of collective bargaining through better wages and working conditions, but do not have to pay for them. Even more troubling is the impact that right-to-work laws have on the economic well-being of workers. Studies have found that all workers in states with right-to-work laws have lower wages and benefits. But in late February, PC Leader Tim Hudak’s union-killing ideas ground to a halt when he made a surprise announcement that his party was dropping their drive to make Ontario the first right-to-work province in Canada. An energized Ontario labour movement that was actively mobilizing against PC candidates, lukewarm support from corporate Ontario, and a public revolt within Hudak’s own party all contributed to the death of the Tory labour platform, according to media reports. However, for Unifor labour economist Jim Stanford, the biggest hurdle for the PC’s labour platform was the public. “The biggest problem for Mr. Hudak’s crusade was a deeper sentiment in Canadian public opinion regarding unions and the role they play in society,” says Stanford. “Many Canadians innately understand that if the only institutional voice speaking for working class priorities is silenced, then the whole social contract will become even more tattered in the years ahead.” NEIL M ONCKTON
Directive on contracting out compromises care
I VIHA is advising its “service providers” to contract out their workers to cut costs.
In April, the Good Samaritan Society fired more than 100 staff at the non-union Wexford Creek care centre in Nanaimo, citing a lack of funding from the Vancouver Island Health Authority (VIHA). The workers will be terminated in September with an invitation to reapply for their jobs at lower wages. Sadly, this is not news. In B.C., mass firings are routine business at privately operated, but publicly subsidized, residential care facilities. So far this year, nearly 500 care and support staff at privately operated nursing homes have received pink slips on Vancouver Island alone. And it’s happened at more than a dozen care homes on Vancouver Island over the last decade. More newsworthy is the revelation that VIHA is advising its “service providers” to contract out their workers to cut costs, or as Good Samaritan put it, “to contract out our core business of caring for the elderly and disadvantaged.” While Good Sam called out VIHA on its directive, other care operators didn’t need to be told twice.
Park Place Seniors Living, the for-profit operator of more than a dozen care facilities in B.C. and Alberta, snapped up two more on Vancouver Island over the past eight months. They’ve laid off all HEU members at both sites and are contracting out their work. Two years ago, the B.C. Ombudsperson called for action to address the impact of these “large-scale staff replacements” on the quality of care. Yet today, VIHA is openly encouraging large-scale staff replacement as a cost-cutting measure. That means care facilities on Vancouver Island will be in a state of constant chaos for the foreseeable future. VIHA’s insistence that the quality of care will not suffer betrays a certain foolish arrogance. Residents and their families don’t believe it. Neither do health care workers. And a recent poll commissioned by the Canadian Medical Association shows 59 per cent of Canadians in key ridings would switch party support in an election on the issue of seniors’ care. Politicians in B.C. should take notice. M IKE OLD • HEU COMMUN ICATION S DIRECTOR
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G U A R D I A N • S P R I N G
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