More economical ways to protect workers rights

Dear Editor: In his guest editorial July 23, Premier John Horgan lauds the benefits of the new Community Benefits Agreement (CBA), which will apply to all publicly funded infrastructure projects in B.C. (roads, bridges, hospitals, schools, etc.). Improved employment opportunities for women, apprentices and indigenous workers, as well as priority hiring for local residents are all worthy objectives.

These goals could all have been achieved by simply inserting language to that effect in the tender documents and letting the construction industry respond accordingly.

Instead, the government chose to set up a new and expensive Crown corporation, BC Infrastructure Benefits Inc. The premier’s unstated goal is to deliver on a promise he made during the election campaign to the International Building Trades Unions (BTUs).

In a speech to their convention, he promised this affiliated group of construction unions that they would build all publicly funded projects in the province.

The new and totally unnecessary Crown corporation will hire all workers employed on all projects. They will all be obliged to join the BTUs and pay union dues. This will apply if they are presently non-union or are signatory to another unaffiliated construction union. Typically, workers are free to join a union or not and to select the union they wish to represent them. Not in Premier Horgan’s B.C.

BTU wages are presently at least 10 per cent higher than industry average. Benefits are 2.5 times higher (average cost to contractors for pension and health and welfare premiums, etc. alone will be $10-plus per hour, in addition to base wages and other benefits). Total labour cost escalation due to this politically motivated payback to the BTUs will be in the order of 35 per cent.

To make matters worse, the BTUs have a rigid craft based structure — a labourer can’t screw in a light bulb, it must be an electrician.

The extra cost to taxpayers to achieve this single union monopoly will be in the hundreds of million dollars.

Is this our current government’s approach to prudent fiscal management? Surely this money can be put to better use to benefit all British Columbians and protect worker rights. Tom Brown, Kelowna