If you took a labour relations class, the teacher would probably say that in the fight between boss and worker, the government is society’s neutral third party that keeps this conflict under control.
This myth met reality for locked-out Canada Post workers with back-to-work legislation from the Conservative government.
The Restoring Mail Delivery for Canadians Act is unusual, according to David Doorey, a York University law professor, because the federal government plainly sides with the employer, an arms-length, profitable Crown corporation. The government is hoping that these over-extensions of government power will go unnoticed by Canadians, now that they are getting their mail.
The new law, sets an annual wage increase that the union said was below the raises on offer by the employer at the bargaining table.
It gives the government the right to appoint an arbitrator, rather than the usual practice of letting the boss and union select their own.
It even tells the arbitrator how to do his or her job by taking into account market forces and ensuring the same solvency ratio for pensions, a major issue in the Canada Post dispute with the boss wanting to spend less while workers pay more.
On top of all that, the law tells the arbitrator to choose one side or the other. No compromise is allowed. No middle ground language or choosing clauses from the boss or worker proposals.
It is win or lose for somebody; given the above restrictions, the employer is encouraged to propose a rock-bottom contract. In short, former Ontario Supreme Court Justice Coulter Osborne has his work cut out for him. Minister of Labour Lisa Raitt appointed him on July 22.
He is well known to former Ontario Conservative government cabinet ministers sitting in the federal cabinet as he was Ontario’s Integrity Commissioner during their last three years of power.
“Perhaps the most remarkable thing about his work has been his unwavering commitment to fairness, accountability, and above all, the public interest,” said Ontario Liberal premier Dalton McGuinty about him upon his retirement in 2007.
The challenge for Osborne will be for him to act independently and with integrity as the arbitrator of the Canada Post dispute, despite the constraints placed on him by a law that Doorey calls “micro-managing”.
One can hope that Osborne will recognize the injustice of the law that gives him his marching orders and take back the traditional of the arbitrator to be what the Canadian government has foregone, a fair-minded decision-maker. If he does not, then there is no doubt that postal workers and their working class allies will respond on the job and politically.
Peter Moore is a freelance writer based in Ottawa