Collective Bargaining In Canada

Collective Bargaining

Collective bargaining in Canada basically shaped by a tight statutory structure which used to regulate almost every aspect of the union management relationship. Labor tribunals will regulate both management and union activities and also may restrain some forms of employers interference with union organizing and bargaining activities as well as the untimely use of economic sanctions by labor unions. In 1943, a collective bargaining statute modeled on the Wagner Act was enacted in the province of Ontario. Therefore, the province of Saskatchewan was the first government in Canada to recognize the right to collective bargaining and granting the rights of collecting bargaining to both public and private sector workers in 1944.

Collective agreements generally occurs to prohibit strikes during the agreement and it last for a set period of time. If the employers and unions cannot reach a collective agreement, either party can apply pressure to the other through stoppage. A work stoppage by workers known as strike while a stoppage created by an employers called as lockouts. Lockouts are common than strikes. According to Cramton et al. (1999), strikes in Canada were substantially influenced by the labor policy. As similarly to the other countries, before a stoppage can occur in Canada, the parties also must apply for a conciliation. Then, a government will appointed a mediator to try helping the two sides reach an agreement in conciliation. Therefore, if conciliation is failed, a cooling-off period of about ten days follows which in this period the employees may remain at work and the parties can continue to negotiate. However, the employees and employers can start a legal stoppage once the cooling-off periods end (Craig,

Union and organization grew more rapidly in Canada and for the past several years union members have comprised a considerably larger percentage of the labor force. During the 1960s and 1970s, Canada’s labor force grew more rapidly than any other industrial country. Over the past two decades, only six industries employing less than 15% of the labor force and accounted more than 50% of all person days lost and for more than 66% of the unusually large and protected strikes. From all the percentages of time loss from strikes, it includes construction, mining, smelting, transportation equipment, primary metals and wood products. A by products of Canada has became a problem of wages disparities due to the unstable pattern of economic growth in Canada. During the rapid expansion, greater disparities have tended to develop the general wage structure of Canada because of widely unequal rates of growth and profitability among different industries and regions due to differences in bargaining power among unions. According to Crispo (2000), the greatest pressure for Canada industrial relations system were globalization and convergence of communications and computerization technology because the unions are weak in these