Steelworkers call on Ford government to support NDP bill to ban replacement workers in Ontario

TORONTO – The United Steelworkers union (USW) is looking forward to the potential passing of legislation tabled in the Ontario legislature by the New Democratic Party to ban the use of replacement workers during labour disputes in the province. Ontario Members of Parliament are voting on the bill today.

USW Ontario Director Myles Sullivan said the NDP’s anti-scab bill presents an opportunity to Doug Ford’s Conservative government to reverse its course of attacking the constitutional rights of workers and their ability to support their families.

“We thank Ontario’s New Democrats for tabling this bill to modernize labour law and support free and fair collective bargaining in this province by stopping the use of replacement workers in labour disputes,” said Sullivan, who was among union members at Queen’s Park this morning when the NDP bill was tabled.

“Recruiting scabs during strikes and lockouts undermines the collective bargaining rights of workers and creates a serious power imbalance in favour of employers. The use of replacement workers exacerbates labour disputes, pits workers against each other, and is destructive to individual lives and communities,” Sullivan added.

“Anti-scab legislation will help prevent such devastating impacts on Ontario families and will help workers to improve their working and living standards, which they desperately need in these times,” he said.

Legislation banning replacement workers exists in Quebec and British Columbia, while similar legislation introduced earlier this month by the federal government would apply to federally regulated workplaces if passed.

Bill 90, tabled last March by Ontario’s New Democrats, would restore legislation that was in place in the province before it was killed in 1995 by the Conservative government of Mike Harris. Bill 90 was tabled jointly by NDP MPPs Jamie West (Sudbury), Lisa Gretzky (Windsor West), Jennifer French (Oshawa) and France Gelinas (Nickel Belt).

Sullivan said he has seen too many labour disputes exacerbated by employers’ use of scab labour. He cited the year-long mining strike by 3,500 USW members in Sudbury and Port Colborne, Ont., in 2009-2010, when was a union negotiator and Sudbury MPP Jamie West was among the workers on the picket line. The strike was prolonged by the decision of Brazil-based Vale, which had recently purchased the former Inco Ltd., to recruit replacement workers for the first time in the history of those operations, Sullivan noted.

“Bill 90 is an opportunity for Doug Ford’s Conservatives to finally back up their claims of supporting workers, which so far have been discredited by their repeated attacks on the fundamental, Constitutional rights of workers,” Sullivan said.

“The Ford government’s attacks on workers have been struck down by the courts and have been widely opposed by working families in communities across our province,” he said.

“To date, Ford’s Conservatives have demonstrated nothing but support for the wealthiest and most powerful in our society. It’s time for them to help workers who need to be able to negotiate better living standards for themselves and their families.”

Contacts:

Myles Sullivan, USW District 6 Director (Ontario and Atlantic Canada), 416-243-8792
Lorei Leigh De Los Reyes, USW Communications, 416-544-6009, ldelosreyes@usw.ca

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