NEW LABOUR LAW SHOWS TEETH AS LABOUR BOARD CERTIFIES UNION AFTER EMPLOYER VIOLATES WORKERS’ RIGHTS TO ORGANIZE
Read the CBC article here.
Employer power to intimidate workers who want to deal collectively with their boss is so great that unions have long fought for labour boards to have the power to automatically certify a union when the employer has clearly violated legal guarantees of the right of workers to freely choose to join a union. Firing workers who are leading an organizing drive is the most blatant example of employer interference in workers’ rights to organize.
Until 1988, the Alberta Labour Board had the power to grant automatic certification to a group of workers whose right to choose to unionize was clearly being messed with by the employer. Removal of that authority from the Board was equivalent to a government message that year to employers that they could interfere in unionization efforts and expect to face only minor penalties, and usually no penalty at all. So the decision by our present government to restore an important protection for workers after three decades without it was welcomed by all Alberta unions. As the article below suggests, the government and the Labour Board are giving notice that they mean to protect the right of workers to unionize if they so choose.