Labour relations dynamic jolted by second back-to-work threat in a week

OTTAWA - The Conservative government brandished the sword of back-to-work legislation for the second time in a week Monday, this time to force an end to the Canada Post lockout.

If the two sides can't agree to their own deal by the time the bill passes, it will be up to an arbitrator to decide which side has the better offer.

Tabling the bill in the Commons may help break the impasse in talks between the two sides; Air Canada and its employees announced a deal hours after the Tories introduced back-to-work legislation to end that dispute last week.

But while the end of the postal lockout may be welcome news for those eager to see mail services resume, critics are alarmed at what appears to be a major change in labour relations policy for Canada.

"Without any public policy debate, we now have a new bargaining regime," said George Smith, a fellow in the Queen's University School of Policy Studies and labour relations expert.

"I don't think this was a platform of the Harper government. It surprises me that without that debate, that they have decided in two cases where there is clearly not overwhelming evidence of economic harm that they will intervene and impose upon the parties a process that is not contemplated in the Canada Labour Code at this point in time."

Urban postal operations were suspended by Canada Post countrywide last Wednesday after nearly two weeks of rotating strikes by the union.

The two sides made no progress in their talks over the weekend, and it had been uncertain whether talks scheduled for Monday would actually take place.

Federal Labour Minister Lisa Raitt signalled last week the billwas coming and introduced it after question period Monday.

She said she hopes that it either passes before the Commons rises for the summer on Thursday or that the two sides work out their own solution before then.

"Canadians want certainty, they want to know that their mail is going to continue to be delivered or start to be delivered once again, and that's what we are here for," she told reporters.

The job action had already cost Canada Post $100 million in lost revenue.

The Crown corporation has said the main sticking point in the dispute is the union's demand for staffing levels beyond the capability of Canada Post, adding that wages were not the key disagreement.

The union has been emphasizing working conditions and safety issues, as well as arguing that new employees would receive inferior wages and pensions.

Postal workers marched at a number of rallies across the country Monday from Kamloops, B.C., to Labrador City, N.L., to gain public support for their cause.

Workers and their supporters in Vancouver, Edmonton and Winnipeg also said they occupied the offices of Conservative MPs.

"We've done everything in our power to achieve a negotiated settlement with as little disruption to the public as possible," Mike Palacek, a postal worker from Vancouver, said in a news release.

"Canada Post's response has been to suspend all of its services, lock us out, and wait for back-to-work legislation."

Workers were delivering pension and social assistance cheques Monday, despite the lockout, the union said in a statement.

A spokesman from Canada Post said Monday morning they believed a deal could still be reached.

"There is time to sit down and hammer out a deal but that requires a commitment to bargain that we haven't seen from the union," said Jon Hamilton.

Going to final offer arbitration is generally seen as the option of last resort and Raitt said the government felt it had no choice.

"It's the appropriate way to deal with this one because the parties have been negotiating on the matter for months," said Raitt.

"It's been exhaustive how much help they've had, how much time they've had and they are unable to even close it a little bit. So now it is time for the arbitration to happen and happen in a clean and clear way and then we get back to working on the economy."

The federal government legislated striking postal workers back to work in 1997 - the last time the union went on strike - after they were off the job two weeks.

The government has used back-to-work legislation over 30 times since it was first deployed in 1950, ending a rail strike that threatened to empty store shelves as merchandise had no way to get across the country.

Air Canada employees were on strike less than a day before the government introduced back-to-work legislation last week.

But labour relations history in Canada dictates that the government should play as neutral a role as possible, said Laurel Sefton MacDowell, a labour relations historian at the University of Toronto.

The Canada Post and Air Canada intervention signal a shift, she said.

"Basically, they are putting their clout behind management, which means they are intervening in a way that is shifting the balance of power," she said.

Opposition New Democrats also accused the Conservatives of trampling on the process of collective bargaining, saying Canada Post's lock-out of employees was what crippled the mail service, not the rolling strikes by postal workers.

"It is the government itself, through a Crown corporation, that caused the lock-out of the employees," said NDP MP Thomas Mulcair.

"This same government is now turning around and criticizing a situation that it created itself."

The possibly that back-to-work legislation could be brought in to end a labour dispute leaves management with little incentive to negotiate, critics and union officials say.

But the final offer arbitration method of having one side win over another doesn't help either in the long run, said Smith.

"Think of all the situations in life when decisions have to be made, some of them very difficult, and you imagine it's take-it or leave it, one of two choices gets made, and the other party doesn't get what they want," he said.

"There is a relationship issue there that will ultimately come out of this."