BCFS workers to give up their right to strike?

[Low Light Mike]

There was a very short (3 sentences long) news story in the March 13th "Nanaimo Daily News" (Canwest), that said that BC Ferries workers are giving up their right to strike.

A few questions for those who might have more info on this:

- Are the ferry workers in the middle of their bargaining-agreement, or is it near the end of the agreement's term? (ie. is this re upcoming negotiations).

- Is this a moot-point anyways, since the BC Gov't could legislate them back to work if they were on strike? And did that possible scenario change after the 2003 privitisation reorganisation?

[Doug]

Nice sensationalist title they chose for the article. Just that'll probably make the union rethink this whole agreement.

[Neil]

There are no negotiations. The contract was over quite a while ago, and I believe they had agreed to an extension. The two sides had agreed this time to binding arbitration by Vince Ready. The union is very unhappy with the provision that all future disputes be refered to Ready, and are thinking of challenge the arbitration. One provision they don't like is that Ready has final say over any discipline arising from the 'North sinking. I can't imagine why they would object to that. Looked at another way, BC Ferries has agreed that any discliplinary action they take has to first be cleared by Ready. Given his reputation for fairness, if I were the union, I would jump at that.

They're not necessarily agreeing that they've given up their right to strike, but FlugelHorn is right, it's a moot point.

The contract also allows for considerable disparity in wage hikes, with higher skilled key classifications getting more, which BC Ferries says is important for attracting and keeping more officer level staff.

As an aside, Vince Ready has a pretty amazing resume in this province. He is by far our foremost labour mediator, and he has saved this province untold man/hours, probably in the millions, over the years, in bringing sides together and solving formerly deadlocked negotiations. I can recall him stepping in at the Press, after a previous mediator had completely botched an incendiary situation, and quickly bringing common sense and intelligence to the situation, and resolving the contract. Even when he's been forced to book out of a dispute, it's sometimes had a positive effect, because the two sides have been forced to reflect that, 'hey, if Vince Ready can't get this solved, maybe things are a bit crazy here'. When people talk about significant British Columbians, they usually are refering to politicians, writers, inspired achievers like Rick Hansen and Terry Fox, and I think Vince Ready deserves to be considered as well, given what he's achieved in a province with a reputation for really belligerent labour management relations.

[kylefossett]

i won't even get started on this topic. if you look back a my history of posts you may know my feelings about the liberal government and david hahn. so it is just easier for me to make this statement and end it there

[Neil]

.... but if you're going to post, and you want to save us the trouble of doing all that research, how about at least a capsule summary?

[kylefossett]

my feelings towards the liberal gov't is that they are out to break the public unions in this province. you look at almost every public union contract since they came into power in 2001. if they went on strike then they were legislated back to work or like the ferry workers they have had that right to strike taken away from them.

[In Washington]

WSF Union employees gave up the right to strike back in the 80's. I stood the last picket line that will likely ever be seen down south.

We still collectively bargain but not in as timely a manner as I think was possible before. I understand that new laws proposed in Olympia will make it more desirable for management to settle negotiations in coming years though.

[Neil]

For our WSF correspondents, if they're looking in here:

How do you view the arbitration process overall, in terms of fairness, over the years? Do both sides have a say in who arbitrates? Since it looks as though BC Ferries workers are heading into the same system of contract settlements.

[Barnacle]

I recall that both sides of the decision must agree to a specific arbitrator before the games can begin.

I also think the arb process has been largely fair and reasonable, though some of the stuff that has actually gotten to arbitration has been a bit childish. Examples are too embarassing to list here.

[Ferry Rider 42]

This story was in the Victoria Times Colonist today.
---------------------

Ferry union queries deal
Published: Friday, March 16, 2007

Whether a nine-year contract imposed on B.C. ferry workers last week has taken away their formal right to strike could be the subject of a legal challenge, says the ferry union's first vice-president.

"I have not given up my right to strike and as far as I know, no member [of the B.C. Ferry and Marine Workers' Union] has given that up," said Richard Goode.

According to the binding agreement, released last week by arbitrator Vince Ready, the union can't legally strike at the end of the new deal that runs until 2012. Instead, the union and company have to enter a formal negotiation process to determine their next contract. That process would conclude, if necessary, with binding arbitration.

"I am not saying the Ready award hasn't taken that right away," Goode said. "That may be another item we will seek legal opinion on."

The agreement comes after the company and the union agreed to binding arbitration following a strike in December 2003. "The union believes that there are parts of the Ready award we have to look at and see if we can challenge because it is so detrimental to our members," Goode said.

The union agreed to binding arbitration, he said, because it felt arbitration was a better option than being legislated back to work by the provincial government. Goode said even though the union doesn't agree with the contents of Ready's ruling, ferry workers are likely better off than they would have been had the B.C. government legislated them back to work and imposed a contract. He called Ready's award a setback in relations between the company and the union. Ready's report credited union president Jackie Miller for suggesting the move to binding arbitration, calling it "a new and fresh approach to collective bargaining."

B.C. Ferries president David Hahn has said Ready's ruling will ensure a period of stability on the water. The ruling gives most ferry workers an 11 per cent wage increase between now and 2010, with "wage re-openers" in the final two years of the deal.

© Times Colonist (Victoria) 2007
Valerie Wilson, CanWest News Service; With files from Times Colonist staff

[Ferry Rider 42]

This was in the Globe And Mail recently, also promise no more large posts for a while.
--------------------

What's this? A B.C. union deal with no-strike clause
Published: March 10, 2007

British Columbia has long been known for its hostile labour climate. Many of its unions are considered among the most powerful and militant in North America.

Over the years, few of them have been as tough or as intransigent as the B.C. Ferry and Marine Workers' Union; it is widely regarded as one of the most dysfunctional in the province.

Which is why a key element in a new collective agreement quietly accepted by the union this week is both mind-boggling and groundbreaking. Why? Because it removes the union's right to strike.

More stunning is the fact that the man who arbitrated the agreement says the no-strike provision was the union president's idea. Wait until her members find out.

A little background is perhaps in order to explain how we got to what could be a seminal moment in B.C. labour-relations history. The last collective agreement between B.C. Ferries and the union expired on Oct. 31, 2003. Virtually no meaningful collective bargaining had taken place to that point, and renowned arbitrator Vince Ready was appointed a day later. Well, negotiations ground to a halt two days after that and a strike ensued.

Following five days of strike action, the provincial government ordered an 80-day cooling-off period and the union back to work. The union ignored the order. With the spectre of heavy fines for being in contempt of court hanging over its head, the union returned to work. On Dec. 12, both sides in the dispute agreed to binding arbitration.

That landmark report was finally given to both sides this week.

As Mr. Ready noted in his decision, the relationship between the two parties has long been "alarmingly acrimonious." Mr. Ready has been called in to arbitrate many of the most high-profile and challenging labour disputes in B.C.'s recent history.

"I would say this dispute was one of the most difficult ever," Mr. Ready said. "There were 198 unresolved issues."

It didn't take long for Mr. Ready to reach the conclusion that the bargaining structure as it existed did not work. Over the years, both sides had demonstrated an unwillingness to set aside their philosophical differences to get a settlement. Consequently, those using the ferry system were the ones who usually suffered. It was during the arbitration proceedings, said Mr. Ready, that Jackie Miller, president of the union, suggested looking at a fresh approach.

She pointed to the binding arbitration model adapted by the Washington State Ferries and marine unions. Mr. Ready, I'm sure, couldn't believe his ears.

Needless to say, he took Ms. Miller up on her kind offer and ruled that in future the two sides will have an opportunity to hammer out a new collective agreement on their own, but, if they fail, the matter will be settled by a dispute-resolution panel made up of Mr. Ready and two others.

There will be no strikes. The agreement extends to 2012.

Now, there are still plenty of areas in this collective agreement that speak to another era and probably should have been changed. Over the years, the ferry workers have managed to extract perks and concessions out of their employer that are extravagant, even by public-sector standards.

The workers, for instance, get 12 special leave days a year for everything from the court appearance of a child to a household emergency. For every day ferry workers on northern routes are on the job, they get one day off. Nice work if you can get it.

And those given the herculean task of managing this money-losing operation are only now getting the kind of flexibility needed to run a company properly in the 21st century -- like deciding who gets certain jobs. What a breakthrough! It will be interesting to see how this new contract is greeted not only by ferry workers but also by big labour. There will no doubt be cries of selling out. Others will see it as a slippery slope for the labour movement in general. Many labour supporters will be stunned, and demoralized, that one of the strongest and most combative unions in the province agreed to a no-strike provision in its contract.

I think there's little doubt that there will now be many other companies perpetually locked in acrimonious talks with their unions demanding a similar dispute-resolution mechanism.

For her part, I think Ms. Miller should be applauded for having the guts to see the writing on the wall. The union's ability to strike was mostly illusionary anyway. The ferries are an essential part of the transportation system in B.C. The government is never going to allow that system to be shut down for long, so the union's only option is to ignore a court order and put itself in contempt.

That's what the union tried last time and it served only to create more chaos. The issue became the legality of the strike rather than the issues that led to it.

Something had to change. But few would have guessed the person who'd come up with the solution would be the head of the union.

© Globe And Mail (Vancouver) 2007
Reported By: Gary Mason

[Barnacle]

I think that, on the whole, WSF labor has done pretty well with binding arbitration. The only problem we had with it was that for twenty-three years, WSF management had little or no impetus to get the contracts achieved in a timely manner, so we were usually negotiating/arbitrating over a contract that was already half-way through its life cycle, or in recent years, completely expired. At the end, before the state legislature added the mechanism to ensure timely contracts, we were as far as four years--two full contracts--in arrears.

If the BCFMWU can avoid that little pothole, I think they'll be pretty happy with binding arbitration.

[BrianWilliams]

An historical reminder:

The labour-friendly BC gov't of Dave Barrett (1972-75) was whacked with a ferry workers strike in the summer of 1975.

That dispute co-incided with our worst period of inflation, so wage increases were sorely needed. However, working conditions, hours of service and training were long-festering sores in the BC Ferries system.

Forgotten now, the 1975 strike produced a better working environment in its settlement. The headlines, unfortunately, skewered the then Minister reponsible who said, "They held a gun to my head."

Minister Bob Strachan retired. Dave Barrett lost the December election, in part because of BC Confed of Labour opposition.

Legal strikes are essential in private industry and public service. They are always the instrument of last resort ... but a strike is the only weapon that workers have when all else fails.

What worker wants to strike? Who wants to lose a $1,000 paycheque for $200 strike pay - and exchange 40 hours of productive work for 72 hours of chilly, rain-soaked picket duty?

Long ago, but I've been there.

[Engineer]

[
For her part, I think Ms. Miller should be applauded

That will be a frosty Friday .................