Toronto Star
Tim Harper
OTTAWA
Only days after convening Parliament as a majority prime minister, Stephen Harper chose unionized workers as the first to face his newfound muscle.
He moved with lightning-quick speed to threaten back-to-work legislation for striking Air Canada ground agents and force workers to settle.
Then he legislated postal workers back to their rounds.
His use of the big club has worked.
Barely two months later, another Air Canada union, this one representing flight attendants, has reached a tentative agreement with the airline.
In recommending acceptance to his 6,800 members, the union president, Jeff Taylor, uses uncompromising language that will echo well beyond the Canadian Union of Public Employees workers now voting on the pact.
It will reverberate with public service unions bracing for battle with the Harper government.
And it will have a chilling effect on a labour movement fighting to protect lucrative pensions and battling against what they perceive to be a two-tier workforce emerging in Canada in which new workers will not be able to enjoy the same benefits as existing workers.
In his memo obtained by the Star, Taylor says, “the Conservative government will not let us go on strike.’’
Whether this is smart bargaining or intimidation by the government is open to interpretation, but Taylor is blunt in telling his membership why he is recommending acceptance.
“One of the main deciding factors is the Conservative government; a government that would rather enforce back-to-work legislation than allow your union to strike.
“This was a key reality that drove the bargaining committee’s decision.’’
Later, he explains: “When the Conservative government decided it would interfere with the union’s fundamental right to strike, and introduce severe back-to-work legislation unprecedented in Canada’s history, it was the game-changer.
“In effect, it is a slap in the face for the entire labour movement.’’
With the one-two punch labour took in the spring, Taylor is correct in his analysis that the threat of back-to-work legislation goes beyond the mere government order.
He says Air Canada would have no incentive to bargain further and his membership would be forced into final-offer arbitration that could result in a step back for the workers.
Those on the management side are, of course, delighted.
They have seen a majority government move quickly to use its mandate to move on a labour front they had long felt tilted to workers, and they say the Conservatives make no secret of their ideological bent on this question.
They also feel the Harper tactics mean the question of rich worker pensions is finally being aired in this country.
The main sticking point in negotiations between the ground agents and now the flight attendants and the airline is the matter of defined benefit plans.
The airline wants to establish a defined contribution pension plan for new hires, instead of the current defined benefit plan.
With defined contribution plans, the company’s contribution is limited to a set, negotiated amount and payouts to retirees depend on the performance of the investments.
Defined benefit plans require a set amount to be paid to retirees.
The question of pension benefits for future Air Canada employees is in the hands of an arbitrator.
Finance Minister Jim Flaherty signalled two years ago that the defined benefit pensions at the airline were too rich and both sides had to fix the problem.
But it is an issue that will play out in negotiations all across this country with public servants in the Conservatives cross hairs.
We’ll see who prevails, but we know where the early betting is.
As Taylor says, his workers hopes for advances were “crushed by a government that has taken control of our fate.’’