Canada's largest labour unions are warning that proposed federal legislation would give Labour Minister Patty Hajdu sweeping authority to shut down legal strikes without parliamentary approval, potentially undermining collective bargaining rights for thousands of workers.Blacklock's Reporter says union executives told a Senate committee that Bill C-39 would expand the federal government's ability to intervene in labour disputes by allowing the minister to order an end to strikes considered harmful to the national interest.Lana Payne, national president of Unifor, said the legislation threatens the bargaining rights of nearly 70,000 members of her union.“C-39 and the explicit attack on the right to free and fair collective bargaining was the last thing workers needed in these times,” Payne testified.“The proposed changes to the Canada Labour Code will impact the bargaining tables of nearly 70,000 Unifor members.”Bill C-39, An Act Respecting Certain Measures To Strengthen The Economy, would authorize the labour minister to “take any measure the minister considers necessary” to address strikes or labour disputes deemed to adversely affect the national interest.The legislation defines national interest broadly, including any significant impact on the Canadian economy or social disruption.Payne warned the wording could allow a single cabinet minister to override workers' rights and impose settlements without parliamentary debate.She described the proposed authority as “a super power, the power to override rights, the power to stop legal strikes, the power to direct the Canada Industrial Relations Board to end a labour dispute and impose an agreement with the stroke of a pen, not by Parliament, but by a single minister.”.Payne argued the definition of national interest is so broad that virtually any strike could trigger federal intervention.“Friends, all strikes have an economic impact. That is the point. That is the exact point of them,” she said.She also criticized the legislation's reference to social disruption.“This concept is ambiguous and dangerous because it has no basis in international or domestic labour law. It should be immediately removed.”François Laporte, president of Teamsters Canada, echoed those concerns, accusing the federal government of attempting to give the labour minister excessive authority over collective bargaining.“It’s about handing arbitrary power over to one minister to end a strike without debate or due process,” Laporte testified.The proposed changes follow repeated federal interventions in labour disputes under Section 107 of the Canada Labour Code.That provision currently allows the labour minister to take steps considered necessary to maintain or secure industrial peace.Cabinet has invoked Section 107 on 10 occasions over the past two years to intervene in labour disputes involving railway employees, postal workers, port employees, airline workers and aircraft mechanics.The affected unions have included Teamsters Canada, the Canadian Union of Postal Workers, CUPE Locals 375 and 2614, the CUPE Airline Division representing Air Canada flight attendants, the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, Unifor Local 333 and the WestJet Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association.Four separate legal challenges involving federal intervention orders remain before the Federal Court.Laporte pointed to the 2024 railway labour dispute involving Canadian National and Canadian Pacific Kansas City as an example of what he considers government interference in collective bargaining.“Our members know exactly what unfairness looks like,” he said.“In 2024 we remember the famous rail dispute where Canadian National and Canadian Pacific actively colluded to simultaneously lock out our members. This led to a national crisis and led the minister at the time to impulsively use Section 107 and force our members back to work.”.Laporte warned that giving Ottawa greater authority to terminate strikes could discourage employers from negotiating seriously with unions.“The mere possibility of the government using Section 107 will make an employer unwilling to bargain, leading to more disputes, not fewer,” he said.Union leaders maintain the legislation could fundamentally change labour relations in federally regulated industries by making government intervention a more prominent factor in contract negotiations.The Senate committee hearings come as the federal government seeks to formalize powers it has already used repeatedly to intervene in major labour disputes affecting transportation and other sectors of the Canadian economy.
