Bains back to scrap secret ballots
When Premier John Horgan reappointed Harry Bains as labour minister last month, he signalled that workers will be stripped of the right to a secret ballot in deciding whether to join a union.
Unions prefer a certification system where workers have to indicate their preference by signing — or refusing to sign — cards provided to them by colleagues or organizers.
Bains, himself a former official with the Steelworkers-iwa, pushed for the so-called card check system in the last term of NDP government. But he ran into entrenched opposition from then- Green party leader Andrew Weaver. The signatures were still fresh on the NDP- Green power-sharing agreement when Weaver announced his preference for the secret ballot.
“Now I know from firsthand experience that in any certification drive there are those people who feel pressured to sign a certification card, but they want the opportunity to have a secret ballot,” he said. “I'm a big supporter of unions, but you have to give people the right to a secret ballot.”
He was referring to his experience on the bargaining team with the faculty association at the University of Victoria.
“I will never support legislation that will eliminate the secret ballot,” he told reporters the month before Horgan took office with Green party support. “It is simply not going to happen. And no amount of convincing will ever convince me to do that.”
Not that the New Democrats didn't try to convince him. Weaver would later recount lobbying from NDP politicians, staffers and their allies in the trade union movement. His stance got a boost when a government-appointed review panel on changes in the Labour Code reported back in 2018.
The panel recommended sticking with the status quo secret ballot for stability's sake, citing four swings in the certification process through each change of government over 35 years.
Weaver seized on that recommendation in refusing to budge in Green party support for the secret ballot.
“The significant policy swings we've seen are incompatible with predictability, certainty or balance,” he said. “If they (the NDP) ignore the expert advice, we'll push them back to the expert advice.”
Apparently he did so. For when Bains prepared to table amendments to the labour code in the spring of 2019, Weaver offered to bet reporters that the secret ballot would remain untouched.
“I'll bet you one hundred bucks,” he teased. “I'll even give you two-to-one odds.”
There were no takers and a few minutes later, Bains ended the non-suspense by announcing that “the highlights” of the legislation “include maintaining the current secret ballot vote for union certification.”
Outside the legislature chamber, the labour minister readily conceded what had happened.
“Yes, our friend Andrew Weaver made it very clear if there's a card check included in this bill, he would not support it,” Bains told reporters.
He also confirmed that if the NDP hadn't needed the vote support of Weaver and the other Greens to get the bill through, they would have dumped the secret ballot in favour of a card check.
“If I was proceeding with a majority government, that would have been my preference,” Bains said.
Weaver offered his own self-satisfied post-mortem on the NDP legislation: “They had a decision to make. Do they bring in the legislation that reflects our values and concerns, so that they know they have our support bringing it in? Or do they bring in what they want knowing we will amend it? That'd be a risk they'd have to take.”
But the more telling comment of that day in 2019 came from Laird Cronk, president of the B.C. Federation of Labour. “We have not finished making the public debate on this.”
Fast forward to Election 2020 and Premier John Horgan being pressed on whether the secret ballot would survive an NDP victory.
“I believe that if workers in a workplace want to join a union, that should be done without intimidation, free from all of that,” claimed Horgan in discussion with Mike Smyth on CKNW radio.
But having said that he added: “The federal government has card check. Other jurisdictions have card check. It is proven to be successful in protecting workers and making sure that industries and businesses understand the rules of engagement. I believe that's appropriate.
“But when we did the review of the Labour Code the B.C. Green party wouldn't support us (and) we put that to one side,” he said leaving not much doubt that if the New Democrats won, it would be reactivated.
Sure enough, high on the premier's to-do list for the reappointed Bains was this item: “Ensure that every worker has the right to join a union and bargain for fair working conditions.”
Bains has other priorities: Increase staffing and inspections at Worksafebc; restore compulsory apprenticeships in the trades; develop transparency legislation to close the gender pay gap; and increase protection and entrenched benefits for workers in ride-hailing and other branches of the “gig” economy. He was also directed to “create new consultative mechanisms to engage employer and worker representatives in consideration of any changes proposed to workplace legislation to ensure the widest possible support.”
I doubt those consultations will save the secret ballot this time. More likely Bains will do what he said he would do as labour minister in a majority government, and bring in legislation to wipe out the secret ballot for union certification votes.
The signatures were still fresh on the Ndp-green power-sharing agreement when Weaver announced his preference for the secret ballot.