Sharks in the water

CLAC lobbyists circle the Saskatchewan legislature licking their lips at the thought of getting into a jurisdiction previously off limits. Consider the unseemly haste in which the Saskatchewan Party is working to let them through the fence.

Bill 80 would open the door to unions — such as the CLAC and Communications, Energy and Paperworkers — that couldn’t previously unionize construction companies in Saskatchewan. A union could also organize a company on a multi-trade or “wall to wall” basis as practised by the CLAC, so everyone at a location could potentially be under the same union.

Paul deJong, the prairies director of the CLAC, told the committee the bill will create “fair competition” among unions and accused the building trades unions that oppose the legislation as wanting to stifle that.

“They want to preserve an unfair monopoly. They don’t want competition. They don’t want construction employees to have a choice,” he told the committee.

But deJong also faced questioning by the NDP’s Andy Iwanchuk about the CLAC’s relationship with Alberta-based construction giant Ledcor CMI Ltd. as the union representing all of the company’s hourly workers.

“Now, when Ledcor opens another division to deal with any particular kind of element of construction or in another jurisdiction, the workers who are hired by them say, ‘CLAC has represented the Ledcor workers across Canada,’ and we get that phone call and we move forward,” said deJong.

Last week, Ledcor’s Tom Brown told the committee the company had essentially been prevented from coming to Saskatchewan by existing construction industry legislation because it keeps out the CLAC.

Brown said the company had a strong relationship with the union because of its wall-to-wall certification and the fact that its collective agreements do not require subcontractors to be unionized by the CLAC.

But the Christian Labour Association of Canada isn’t regarded so favourably by the majority of the union movement.

Saskatchewan Federation of Labour president Larry Hubich accused the CLAC of “anti-democratic practices” such as conducting ratification votes before a wage schedule is negotiated, permitting management to take part in union meetings and enticing employees with interest-free payday loans.

He said research done by the Canadian Labour Congress showed that in some jurisdictions, 25 to 40 per cent of agreements involving the CLAC are voluntary recognition agreements from employers that don’t want legitimate trade unions.

“Bill 80 is designed to prevent workers working for non-unionized employers from certifying that employer. Bill 80 will diminish the ability of employees on a construction site from organizing and forming a union,” said Hubich.

“Bill 80 does this by allowing a company, for example a contractor from outside the province, to strike an agreement with an employer-friendly union, sign an agreement with them and anyone who works for that employer will have to work for that union chosen by that employer.”

But deJong said there are myths being perpetuated about the CLAC because it does not take the “adversarial” approach of other unions.

Saskatchewan workers should do themselves a favour and investigate what kind of creature their government is considering letting off the leash in Saskatchewan. The Finning case is instructive.

Finning decided to construct a new Component Rebuild Centre (CRC) in 2001 and restructure operations through a complex series of transactions in 2003-2004.

The restructuring included an investment of $87 million for a new plant and an agreement to contract out the work carried out by Finning Canada at the CRC.

O.E.M. Remanufacturing Company Inc. was created during the amalgamation of three related companies on Jan.1, 2004.

In the transfer, OEM evaded the existing contract with the IAMAW and signed a contract with the Christian Labour Association of Canada (CLAC).

Finning was aided in their effort to take their workers union away and replace it with CLAC which management had quietly negotiated a sweetheart deal with, by the Alberta Labour Relations Board which in an extraordinary display of blatant bias, over-ruled the conclusion of its own arbitration panel and tore up the Finning workers contract with their original union by fiat. Fortunately they were overturned in an unprecedented rebuke by the Alberta Court of Appeals.

EDMONTON, Oct. 18 /CNW/ - In an important and strongly-worded decision released yesterday, the Alberta Court of Appeal overturned a controversial Labour Relations Board (LRB) decision which allowed Finning International in 2005 to rid itself of a union collective agreement by establishing a new company for part of its operations. At the time the decision was considered by many to fly in the face of available evidence.
"This is an important decision by the three Justices of the Court of Appeal," says AFL President Gil McGowan. "It reverses a terrible decision by the Alberta Labour Relations Board (LRB). Finning had created a new blueprint for union busting, and the LRB was letting them get away with it. Thankfully the Court of Appeal saw through it and has stopped it."
The unanimous decision pertains to a dispute in 2005, in which Finning International created a new entity, OEM Remanufacturing, to take over Finning's component rebuilding operations. In the transfer OEM evaded the existing contract with the International Association of Machinists (IAM) and instead signed a contract with the Christian Labour Association of Canada(CLAC).
An original LRB decision ruled OEM was a successor to Finning and that the two companies were, in fact, a common employer. Normally this would have meant that IAM would have maintained its status as official bargaining agent and the workers would have been protected by the existing IAM collective agreement with Finning.
Two months later, adopting a highly unusual procedure, the Labour Relations Board reconsidered the decision at the request of the employer. In that reconsideration, a five-person "superpanel" consisting of the LRB Chair Mark Asbell, two Vice-Chairs and two Board members overturned the original ruling. IAM then appealed to the courts.
"It was a thinly-veiled attempt to bust our union, and we were determined to fight it," says IAM Lodge 99 President Bob MacKinnon. "This is an important day for us, the Machinists, and for all unionized workers. It is also a great day for the democratic process: the Court has recognized that where workers have voted to be represented by a union, that decision must be respected by employers in Alberta."

When you combine the efforts of a bosses union, corrupt management, business friendly government and an in the tank labour board the cards end up stacked firmly against workers. Saskatchewan workers and progressives should consider Bill 80 a mortal threat and respond accordingly.

CLAC cracked?

The Christian Labour Association of Canada, not to put too fine a point on it, is a fake union. They're an association with no standing in the Canadian Labour Congress. They oppose Wage Equity and anti-sexual discrimination campaigns because they believe they “undermine the foundations of such institutions as marriage and the family.”

CLAC, is the bosses favorite union. Employers bring them in to keep real unions out.

But CLAC has been having a bad couple of months:

EDMONTON, Oct. 18 /CNW/ - In an important and strongly-worded decision released yesterday, the Alberta Court of Appeal overturned a controversial Labour Relations Board (LRB) decision which allowed Finning International in 2005 to rid itself of a union collective agreement by establishing a new company for part of its operations. At the time the decision was considered by many to fly in the face of available evidence.
"This is an important decision by the three Justices of the Court of Appeal," says AFL President Gil McGowan. "It reverses a terrible decision by the Alberta Labour Relations Board (LRB). Finning had created a new blueprint for union busting, and the LRB was letting them get away with it. Thankfully the Court of Appeal saw through it and has stopped it."
The unanimous decision pertains to a dispute in 2005, in which Finning International created a new entity, OEM Remanufacturing, to take over Finning's component rebuilding operations. In the transfer OEM evaded the existing contract with the International Association of Machinists (IAM) and instead signed a contract with the Christian Labour Association of Canada CLAC).

ABBOTSFORD, BC, Nov. 14 /CNW/ - The BC Labour Relations Board will grant the United Steelworkers (USW) the legal right to be the bargaining agent for more than 150 workers at Dynamic Windows and Doors in Abbotsford. Workers decided to join the USW, removing the previous certification by the Christian Labour Association of Canada (CLAC). USW Local 2952, based in Burnaby, will represent the workers who are currently covered by a collective agreement negotiated by the CLAC. That agreement expires on April 30, 2009.

Two hundred and fifty health care workers at two privately-operated care facilities in the Kootenays have voted to join the Hospital Employees' Union. In Nelson, more than ninety care staff - employed by Advocare at Mountain Lake Seniors' Community - joined HEU as part of a joint campaign with the B.C. Government and Service Employees' Union (BCGEU) that also included some of the company's operations in Kelowna and Penticton.

The facts about CLAC have been getting out to workers thanks to groups like The Truth about CLAC and the IWW's CLAC Attack! campaign. Additionally important rulings have been won against them. The Alberta Appeals Court ruling was a major blow not just against CLAC but against the flimsy shreds that were left of the Alberta Labour Board's credibility. Losing a challenge before the courts is so unprecedented, it highlights just how grotesque the decision by the Labour Board's five person 'super panel' to overturn the board's original ruling was.

On the negative side, CLAC has hitherto been denied access to Saskatchewan. Any bets on how long before Saskatchewan's new 'business friendly' government decides to change that?

Pitcher Plants

I propose a new sub-classification of astroturf groups; those that are actively deceptive about their nature and goals when pulling in new...subjects.

I propose such groups be called Pitcher Plants

Whatever their evolutionary origins, foraging, flying or crawling insects such as flies are attracted to the cavity formed by the cupped leaf, often by visual lures such as anthocyanin pigments, and nectar bribes. The sides of the pitcher are slippery and may be grooved in such a way so as to ensure that the insects cannot climb out. The small bodies of liquid contained within the pitcher traps are called phytotelmata. They drown the insect, and the body of it is gradually dissolved.

-Wiki on Pitcher Plants

Examples: Tea bag and anti-Healthcare movements created and funded by powerful rightwing political and corporate forces, created to suck in people in an economic strata most likely to benefit from the Democratic Party policies they are tricked into opposing.

Another example is the network of Crisis Pregnancy Centers. A name that makes them seem like a health resource vulnerable women can turn to for access to all their legal options. Instead the CPCs are in fact an evangelical front group that carefully hides, until vulnerable women have fallen into the pitcher plant, that they will never help a woman get an abortion. That they oppose birth control and pressure women who've undergone abortions to undergo guilt based counseling to make them regret that they had a right to a legal medical procedure. They've also been credibly linked to harassment, extremism and stringing women along until its too late to end their pregnancies.

One of these things has opened a few blocks from my home. I'm a little ticked about that.

Another pitcher plant example are fake unions. CLAC, the The Christian Labour Association of Canada, not to put too fine a point on it, is a fake union. They're an association with no standing in the Canadian Labour Congress.

CLAC, is the bosses favorite union. Employers bring them in to keep real unions out.

Pitcher Plants that draw in the unwary with a benign appearance only to devour them slowly once they're inside.