Free collective bargaining: Posties win first step

An important victory for workers (like Ontario hospital workers) who are required by law to resolve contract disputes through interest arbitration rather than strikes or lockouts.

Following the lock-out of postal workers by Canada Post earlier this year, the Harper federal government introduced legislation that unilaterally appointed the arbitrator. However, the arbitration process only works if both employer and union agree on the arbitrator. The Harper government appointed a judge without any experience in arbitration.

This is similar to what the Mike Harris government tried to impose on Ontario hospital workers in the 1990s. OCHU/CUPE had to fight this off for four years, before getting an experienced arbitrator acceptable to both parties.

A federal court judge has granted the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) a stay of proceedings. The arbitration will now stop until the union's challenge to the hand-picked arbitrator is heard in January.

CUPW is also challenging another troubling aspect of the legislation, 'final offer selection,' which requires the arbitrator to pick one side or the other, rather than try to find a compromise. This can force the union leadership to take a position in arbitration that is opposed by its own members, effectively separating the union leadership from the union (i.e. the members). This is not generally a problem for the much less democratic (and much less numerous) management-side of an employment relationship.

Government legislation to prevent or end strikes and lockouts is becoming more and more common. And more and more often, such legislation is biased in favour of the employers (e.g. the Harper government actually imposed a wage settlement on the posties that was less than Canada Post had offered). There is also increasing talk of changing the interest arbitration process for essential workers to favour employers.

So CUPW's victory is an good step forward.

For more on the CUPW ruling see: Straight Goods - Court upholds CUPW challenge

Comments

More spending on new hospitals and new beds? Nope

Hospital funding: There is something off about the provincial government's Budget claims on hospital capital funding (funding to build and renovate hospital beds and facilities). For what it is worth (which is not that much, given the long time frame the government cites), the province claims it will increase hospital capital spending over the next 10 years from $11 billion to $20 billion – or on average to about $2 billion per year. But, this is just a notional increase from the previous announcement of future hospital capital spending. Moreover, even if we did take this as a serious promise and not just a wisp of smoke, the government's own reports shows they have actually funded hospital infrastructure about $3 billion a year over the 2011/12-2015/16 period. So this “increase” is really a decrease from past actual spending. Even last year's (2016-17) hospital capital funding increase was reported in this Budget at $2.3 billion - i.e. about 15% more th

Ford government fails to respond to 72% increase in COVID inpatient days, deepening the capacity crisis

COVID infections continue to drive up hospital costs and inpatient hospitalizations in Ontario. For the most recent fiscal year (April 1, 2022- March 31, 2023) hospital stays related to COVID cost $1.221 billion, according to new CIHI data. This is about 4% of total hospital spending, creating a very significant new cost pressure beyond the usual pressures of population growth, aging, inflation, and rising utilization. Costs for COVID related hospitalizations increased 22.2% in Ontario in 2022/23 from the previous fiscal year, rising from $999 million to $1.221 billion. That rise is particularly notable as the OMICRON spike of late 2021 and early 2022 had passed by the the 2022/23 fiscal year. The $222 million increase in COVID hospitalization costs came in the same year as the Ford government cut special COVID funding and, in fact, cut total hospital funding by $156 million. In total, there were 60,653 COVID hospitalizations in Ontario in 2022/3, up from 47,543 in 2021/2.

Paramedic Services in Canada: Structure, Privatization, Unionization and other issues

Governance and Funding : While police and fire services are usually municipal services, Emergency Medical Services (EMS) are typically controlled by provincial governments. In Ontario, regional municipal governments have responsibility for delivering and funding EMS. But even in Ontario the province plays a key role, strictly regulating EMS, providing funding for 50% of the approved land ambulance costs, and paying 100% of the approved costs for air ambulance, dispatch, base hospitals, First Nation EMS, and for territories without municipal government. Delivery : Like police and fire services, EMS is predominantly a publicly provided service in Canada. But businesses have now made some significant in-roads into EMS, primarily Medavie, a private corporation based in the Maritimes that describes itself as not-for-profit. Medavie goes back over 70 years, with its roots in health insurance. It still operates Medavie Blue Cross with 1,900 employees. It now a

Defend Public Healthcare

Search This Blog