February 20, 2006

LABOUR SCENE by John Clarke

Labour agreement may signal a new era in union-management relations

It may be one of those occasions when the journey is more important than the destination.

It will, of course, be important for B.C. to have a signed, sealed and delivered labor agreement in construction in the next few weeks. Indeed even before the final deal is cut raises of $6 to $10 an hour are already being paid in some trades in the firm expectation of labor peace beyond 2010 and the Winter Olympics.

A claim by the B.C. and Yukon Building Trades (union) Council that the Vancouver Olympic Committee could have limited cost overruns (already $110 million), if it had had an agreement covering wages, training, safety and labor supply on Games’ venues, may make for some interesting speculation. But what is more interesting in the long run is what a new contract with the Trades Council will do for the culture of labor relations in one of the most historically troubled industries in the province.

The building unions and the contractors in the Construction Labor Relations Association have been working for 30 years for a better managed relationship. The problem has been finding a common focus.

The old order of conflict, work stoppages, union leapfrogging, mystery pickets and industry disruptions had to be replaced.

Ironically some in the industry look back with some fondness on those old times. There may have been strikes and lockouts but there was always work to go back to after the armistice. That was when the unions represented most of the workers and they and the CLRA controlled the industry.

Not so now. Non-union labor, non-traditional unions and the open shop sector have brought strong competition into the market, to which the unions and the CLRA have had to respond.

Hence the journey toward more architecture in the contracts negotiated, with common terms and conditions across the trades’ spectrum. A bargaining council had to be established, issues categorized at one table specific to individual trades and a main table dealing with such things as contract expiry dates, ratification processes and so on.

Without a structure firm enough to withstand the pressures of bargaining, it was increasingly difficult to find a way forward for the 15 international unions involved and 25 different trades with a range of skills and wage rates. All agreements need a double majority, a yes from a majority of the trades, backed by a majority among the union members.

Solutions weren’t found without long debate before a provincial Labor Relations Board that did not fit easily with the trades’ ideas and did not itself find comfort in a quasi-negotiating role.

The unionized sector likes to boast that there hasn’t been a strike or lockout in 20 years, something that can’t be matched by any other major industry.

But for the future the most important thing is to find out whether the journey has indeed changed the culture of relations. If it has, it has been encouraged mightily by competition from the open shop and by pressure from clients for a more cost-efficient industry.

In the boom of 2006 it’s relatively easy to bargain a better way, especially when skill shortages put workers in a catbird seat. So judgment may have to wait until after 2010 when things are expected to slow down and the scramble for labor may have lessened. Until then the industry will be content to live with whatever harmony prevails until then.

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