Union Organization Isnt Covered By Freedom Of Association
The London Free Press reports that organized labor in Canada has suffered a serious blow from a Supreme Court ruling that prevents Ontario farm workers from joining a union.
“Up until now unions have thought the constitution would protect them,” University of Western Ontario associate dean of law Michael Lynk said. “Facing a decline in membership and attacks from provincial legislation, unions probably thought the constitution was their last great hope,” Lynk said
But the court ruled the rights of unions to organize isn’t entrenched in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, Lynk said. That suggests the high court would also rule a union’s rights to collectively bargain and to strike — challenged in several pieces of legislation across Canada — aren’t entrenched in the charter, he added.
“Unions thought a liberal reading of the Charter was either going to protect them or slow down provincial legislation they considered to be anti-labour. That hope is diminished in the aftermath of this particular ruling.”
The Supreme Court ruled Ontario’s law preventing the province’s 80,000 farm workers from joining a union doesn’t contravene their right to freedom of association under the Charter. Only one of the nine justices offered a dissenting opinion.
The ruling ended, in the courts at least, a decade-long battle by the United Food and Commercial Workers Union of Canada. ◆