McCrae seeks review of Labour Relations Act

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This article was published 22/03/2012 (5330 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Coun. Jim McCrae’s concern about recent labour disputes in the city has led him to draft a request to the Manitoba legislature to review the Labour Relations Act.

The Meadows councillor presented his intent on Monday to present a motion at the April 2 city council meeting for debate and discussion that the law and “its administration” be looked at by provincial legislators “to ensure that employees and employers can operate in fair and respectful workplaces.”

“I’m very troubled,” McCrae said. “If I don’t speak up about something that is important to me, and everyone in Brandon, I’m not doing my job. I am very troubled. Last fall, there was a terrible labour dispute and many, many people were hurt by the Brandon University strike. I can find something to blame on every corner of that dispute and more recent events at the fire hall trouble me a great deal.”

McCrae said he “deliberately” requested that the legislature look at the labour law because he wants fairness for everyone.

“I hope that if we get this on the (council) floor that we can have a civilized discussion and that the legislature and the government will take a look in a civilized way at how we do labour relations in this province,” McCrae said.

The veteran councillor and former Manitoba attorney general said his motion is not intended to take a side in either dispute, and didn’t elaborate on what changes to labour law he wanted.

“It’s not one change, but when I referred to the Brandon University strike, I was upset with, in no particular order, the provincial government, the administration of the university, the faculty association and there’s plenty of blame to go around,” McCrae said. “I’m being very careful not to take any kind of a side. And secondly, there are issues at the fire hall and because those issues are under review, I hesitate to say much more about that.”

Brandon East New Democratic Party MLA Drew Caldwell said that he supports free collective bargaining.

“The Labour Relations Act has served to build such workplaces for a few decades now, including the time when Mr. McCrae was in government,” Caldwell said. “If a workplace is dysfunctional, legislation is not the solution. Sound management is.”

Caldwell added that the provincial government is open to receiving advice on issues.

“Our government has been very open to … reviewing matters brought to our attention with a view towards improving the province,” Caldwell said. “This would occur with this or any other resolution forwarded to us.”

Brandon West Progressive Conservative MLA Reg Helwer welcomes the opportunity to review the labour law, noting the Brandon University strike had a poisonous effect on students, the university as a whole and the community at large.

“There are obviously parts of that law that aren’t working well in our current environment,” Helwer said.

“I am encouraged someone has asked the province to review the act because I believe they should. There are changes that could be made so that we don’t have a divisive strike at Brandon University again and that would be the intent of anything I look at. Are there ways we can make this work better?”

Helwer said the strike was allowed to carry on as long as it did because there weren’t provisons in the law that gave government the power to act sooner.

“I’m told when they made these amendments to the Labour Relations Act with regards to the length of a strike before the government could intervene, that it was believed nobody would strike for that long,” Helwer said. “Well they pretty much did at BU and things have changed. So it’s time to look at it.”

» kborkowsky@brandonsun.com