Canada's Labor Law: An Example for the U.S.?

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.pointoflaw.com/columns/archives/2009/11/canadas-labor-law-an-example-f.php

November 8, 2009

John Endean

What if America's labor law were more like Canada's? Were our Congress to enact into law a more union-friendly legal code of the sort long familiar to our northern neighbors, what sorts of consequences would we expect? At present, 29.4 percent of workers in Canada are represented by unions, as contrasted with 12.4 percent of workers in the U.S. Would adopting a more "Canadian" legal regime close much of that gap, or only a little of it? And what would be the consequences for employee well-being, for managerial efficiency, and for the health of the U.S. economy generally?

These questions are not new ones among those who follow labor policy, but they have taken on fresh interest given the enormous stir in Washington over the proposed Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA). The top legislative priority of organized labor, and potentially the most significant piece of labor legislation since the Wagner Act of 1935, EFCA consists largely if not entirely of policy initiatives that follow a "Canadian" path:

* "Card check". Today, in most cases, installing a union to represent workers at a place of business requires a majority vote of the workers by secret ballot. EFCA's best-known and most controversial provision would require recognition of a union upon its presentation of signatures on union cards from a majority of the workers in a proposed bargaining unit. (1) The card-check system has a long track record in Canada.

* Imposed arbitration of first contracts. Once organization is accomplished, EFCA would compel management to reach a first contract with the new union, by providing for mandatory arbitration and imposition of a contract by a government-appointed arbitrator should negotiations not result in a contract by a certain point. Some Canadian employers both public and private are subject to imposed arbitration at negotiation impasse; in the United States up to now, such requirements have ordinarily been imposed only on some public employers.

* "Quickie" elections. As the unpopularity of eliminating the secret ballot has become clear, organized labor and its supporters have begun to cast around for "compromise" EFCA provisions aimed at bolstering unions' organizing efforts in other ways. One such idea is to speed up greatly, perhaps to 10, 12 or 15 days, the holding of elections following a union petition, which currently in the U.S. are held a median of 39 days later. In Canada, by contrast, there is usually only a five-day window before elections. Shorter periods before a vote are generally considered unfavorable for employers because it gives them little time in which to assemble a case against unionization and make it known to workers; the union, by contrast, will ordinarily have had weeks or months to make its case to workers in private persuasion before it surfaces with its election demand.

FULL story at link.