Canadian Unions Hail Court Ruling on Bargaining Rights

In a landmark victory for Canadian workers, the country's Supreme Court ruled 6-1 last week that the right to collective bargaining is protected by the Charter of Rights, similar to the Bill of Rights in the United States.

"The right to bargain collectively with an employer enhances the human dignity, liberty and autonomy of workers by giving them the opportunity to influence the establishment of workplace rules and thereby gain some control over a major aspect of their lives, namely their work," wrote Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin and Justice Louis LeBel.

The ruling – from a court with a generally conservative reputation -- came in a case involving a 2003 British Columbia law that allows health-care employers to break union contracts and eliminate job security provisions by replacing union workers with non-union contractors. Thousands of workers lost their jobs.

CWA and TNG-CWA represent more than 7,000 workers in Canada. TNG-Canada Director Arnold Amber said that while the ruling "doesn't affect many of our members, every Supreme Court judgment that moves the cause of labor forward is really, really important. This is a tremendous victory, a reaffirmation of the legitimacy and the importance of the labor movement in Canada."

CWA President Larry Cohen said the justices "took a legal and moral stand for workers that is a sharp contrast to countries like the United States where many corporations would like nothing more than for workers to have no rights at all."

The court suspended the effect of its decision for one year to give British Columbia time to pass acceptable legislation. Lawyers and union leaders said they don't know yet whether the court's decision will offer any recourse for the thousands of union members whose jobs were contracted as a result of the B.C. law.