The MHCA will be seeking meetings to understand fully the NDP government’s intent to repeal legislation, adopted by the Pallister government, that prohibited the use of project labour agreements on publicly funded projects.
Premier Wab Kinew announced on March 6 the introduction of Bill 7, the Public Sector Construction Projects (Tendering) Repeal Act. The act would bring back the option to require unionized workers as a condition of a tender or project labour agreement (PLA).
Labour and Immigration Minister Malaya Marcelino said the bill does not mean all tenders would require unionization.
The legislation would allow the provincial public sector, including Crown corporations and government departments, to require or favour a labour relations model, such as a PLA, in publicly funded projects. Premier Kinew, in media reports, said his government is inclined to use PLAs when tendering major infrastructure projects.
“Labour relations legislation to be successful must be balanced versus overly prescriptive,” MHCA President & CEO Chris Lorenc said. “The back and forth between position extremes does not engender stability; it creates an atmosphere of uncertainty.”
Lorenc said the association will be seeking insight on details.
He said what should be noted and celebrated is the fact that labour relations in Manitoba, certainly in the private sector, have been relatively speaking harmonious, not marked with outbreaks of lock outs closures or strikes.
“That is in part because of a balanced approach to labour relations. That should be the needle for any government regardless of political stripe to want to find with any proposed legislation or regulation.”
Manitoba is envied across Canada, Lorenc said, because it has a Labour Management Relations Committee (LMRC) upon which successive governments – NDP and PC – have relied when proposing labour relations legislation.
‘We assume the current government will follow that well-worn and establish path which solicits and respects advice when charting directions forward.”
No one wants disharmony in the workplace whether related to workplace safety, working conditions or compensation and benefits. The heavy construction industry invests well in the education, training, wages and benefits paid its workforce, that won’t change, he said.
