St. John’s – CUPE NL President Wayne Lucas says changes to the province’s Labour Relations Act (LRA) are a capitulation to employers and the business lobby, and are totally uncalled for.
Says Lucas, “The amendments include the shocking removal from the LRA of card-based certification, which has been in place without problem for the last two years. “Card-based certification is something that CUPE, as part of the NLFL (Federation of Labour), sought to achieve for years. It was accomplished after a lengthy process through the Strategic Partnership.
Now government has simply caved to the business lobby and removed it,” says Lucas. Lucas says, “When the government unveiled changes to the province’s labour law in June 2012, then-minister Terry French actually called it a balanced approach.” Lucas explains that while the legislative changes from two years ago included some that were sought by labour and some sought by employers, today’s amendments only strip away those that were achieved by labour.
“This is a betrayal of organized labour in our province, a constituency that represents almost 40% of the workforce. Card-based certification has worked. It should remain available. The government is clearly catering to employers. It will make it harder to unionize, negatively impacting workers and communities,” says Lucas.
For information:
Wayne Lucas President, CUPE NL
John McCracken CUPE Communications Representative