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Update Labour Laws, CAW Tells Ontario in Caterpillar Aftermath

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5 March, 2012

 

The Canadian Auto Workers (CAW) is demanding that labour and regulatory law in the province of Ontario be toughened in the wake of the social calamity perpetrated by Caterpillar Inc. in the recent lockout/closure of a rail electric diesel factory in the south-western provincial city of London.

With that nearly all labour law in Canada is governed by the provinces, CAW demanded in a 29 February letter to Labour Minister Linda Jeffrey that Ontario toughen its labour statutes as remedy to lax investment regulations. Specifically, the CAW demands that more powers be granted the Ontario Labour Relations Board to stamp out bad-faith bargaining strategies.

The CAW is campaigning for a stronger and more modernized labour code in Ontario because of Caterpillar’s subsidiary, Electro-Motive Diesel, blackmailing workers and a community in choosing between non-liveable wages and a major plant closure. (See prior ICEM report here.)

  

Ken Lewenza

In the letter, CAW President Ken Lewenza said, “The company’s unjustifiable behaviour – and the resulting devastation now being brought to bear on workers and the community – has touched a nerve with Canadians and triggered broad public support.”

The CAW is proposing powers of expedited interest arbitration in pitched labour disputes, as well as new provisions to prevent employers from evading collective agreements by using a lockout.

Also put forward is a ban on scab replacement workers during a dispute, and restoring workers’ plant closing rights to negotiate adjustment plans. The CAW also says fairness demands the lengthening of time for giving plant closing notice, and a minimum two weeks’ pay for each year of service, with elimination of the five-year service tie-in.

The CAW letter also calls for an Industrial Inquiry Commission, as stipulated in Section 37, Ontario Labour Relations Act, in order to investigate Caterpillar carnage on workers in the province and the city of London.

“The Caterpillar debacle demonstrates all too well the ease with which an employer can stall out the negotiation process, bargain in bad faith with impunity and manufacture a dispute in an attempt to evade contractual obligations,” Lewenza stated.

“Caterpillar did not misjudge or misinterpret Ontario’s labour laws; rather, they understood them all too well, and exploited the laws’ weaknesses as a key part of their overall strategy.”