e-6979 (Employment and labour)

Petition to the House of Commons in Parliament assembled

• Section 107 of the Canada Labour Code gives sweeping, undemocratic powers to the Minister responsible for labour relations to violate the right to strike, allowing the Minister to direct the Canada Industrial Relations Board (CIRB) to do whatever the government subjectively “deems necessary” to “secure industrial peace”. Liberal Ministers have interpreted this to mean they can end a strike by simply sending an email;
• The Government of Canada has repeatedly invoked Section 107 to violate the right to strike and undermine fair collective bargaining, including against striking postal workers, rail workers, port workers and flight attendants. Most recently, the Minister of Jobs and Families invoked Section 107 less than 12 hours after CUPE flight attendants began their strike in opposition to unpaid work;
• In 2016 the Supreme Court of Canada recognized that the right to strike is an “essential” and “indispensable” component of the right to collective bargaining, and ruled that the right to strike is protected under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms; and
• At a time when countless workers across Canada are seeing costs for essentials like housing, groceries and transportation skyrocketing, our leaders should be promoting fair collective bargaining and liveable wages, not undermining them by attacking the right to strike.