<\/p>\n
For Immediate Release<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Toronto, ON \u2013 The Supreme Court of Canada has affirmed that the right to strike is essential to meaningful collective bargaining.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a great start to the new year,\u201d said a satisfied IAM Canadian General Vice President Dave Ritchie. \u201cWe pride ourselves in that 99 per cent of our collective agreements are settled without a strike but all too often in recent years, governments turn to unfair essential services arrangements that tip the scales in management\u2019s favour. This decision levels the playing field for Canadian workers.\u201d<\/p>\n
The precedent-setting decision determined that the Saskatchewan government\u2019s Public Service Essential Services Act (PSESA) violates the freedom of association protected by the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. This decision overturned a 2013 decision by the Saskatchewan Court of Appeal which had previously ruled in favour of the provincial government.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile strike activity itself does not guarantee that a labour dispute will be resolved in any particular manner, or that it will be resolved at all, it is the possibility of a strike which enables workers to negotiate their employment terms on a more equal footing,\u201d Justice Rosalie Abella wrote for the majority in a 5-2 ruling.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is great news for our members at Air Canada whose collective agreement expires in the spring of 2016,\u201d said Ritchie. As recently as 2012, the Harper government passed legislation taking away the right to strike from 8,600 IAM Air Canada employees after contract talks had reached an impasse and strike notification was issued. Then Federal Labour minister Lisa Raitt insisted a work stoppage would not be in the best interests of the fragile Canadian economy.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis decision takes away management\u2019s trump card and allows us to use ours if necessary,\u201d explained Ritchie. \u201cThe decision spells it out in plain English, the right to strike is essential to meaningful collective bargaining and what governments have been doing in the past will no longer be tolerated.\u201d<\/p>\n
-30-<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
For further information:<\/p>\n
Dave Ritchie \u2013 IAM Canadian General Vice President<\/p>\n
416-386-1789 Ext # 6323<\/p>\n
Bill Trbovich \u2013 IAM Director of Communications<\/p>\n
416-386-1789 Ext #6331\/416-735-9765<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
For Immediate Release Toronto, ON \u2013 The Supreme Court of Canada has affirmed that the right to strike is essential to meaningful collective bargaining. \u201cThis is a great start to the new year,\u201d said a satisfied IAM Canadian General Vice President Dave Ritchie. \u201cWe pride ourselves in that 99 per cent of our […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7],"class_list":["post-468","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general-info","tag-general-info"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/iamdl181.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/iamdl181.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/iamdl181.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/iamdl181.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/iamdl181.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=468"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/iamdl181.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":469,"href":"http:\/\/iamdl181.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468\/revisions\/469"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/iamdl181.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=468"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/iamdl181.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=468"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/iamdl181.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=468"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}