[DOWNLOAD] "Striking a Collective Bargain: The Supreme Court Decision in B.C. Health Services (Unblj Forum: Recent Developments in Canadian Labour and Employment Law)" by University of New Brunswick Law Journal ~ Book PDF Kindle ePub Free
eBook details
- Title: Striking a Collective Bargain: The Supreme Court Decision in B.C. Health Services (Unblj Forum: Recent Developments in Canadian Labour and Employment Law)
- Author : University of New Brunswick Law Journal
- Release Date : January 01, 2009
- Genre: Law,Books,Professional & Technical,
- Pages : * pages
- Size : 286 KB
Description
As I reflect on the forty plus years that I have spent as a labour activist I think of hard-fought battles that our members have won as a result of their collective decision to engage in strike action. I vividly remember many of the victories that have been achieved at bargaining tables as skilled union negotiators hammered out deals that protected the interests of our members. When I think of the successes of our union and of the broader labour movement, I do not think of the courts. Traditionally, the courts in this country have chosen to interpret the law in a manner which is generally unsympathetic to the circumstances of working people and the trade unions which represent them. The passing of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms ("Charter") offered some hope to trade union activists, but the promise that the Charter offered was quickly extinguished. Rejection of a collectivist approach to rights, which were collectivist in nature, made it a virtual certainty that our courts would not provide workers with a tool that could be used to assist them in the fight for economic and workplace justice. (1) Following the disappointing decisions of the Supreme Court of Canada ("the Supreme Court"), in what became known as the "labour trilogy" many trade unionists concluded that the courts would not expand the rights of working people and that the demands for economic fairness for working people would have to be won in the public sphere. (2) It is a view that I share.