Vaughn Palmer: Bains bristles at suggestions he's doing nothing to resolve transit dispute
Credit to Author: Gord Kurenoff| Date: Thu, 21 Nov 2019 02:45:30 +0000
VICTORIA — Labour minister Harry Bains got off to a reassuring start Wednesday with a cautious response to the prospect of a full-blown shutdown next week of the bus system in Metro Vancouver.
“This is obviously difficult news for everyone who relies on transit in the Lower Mainland,” said the initial statement from Bains after the union announced a three-day strike starting next Wednesday.
“We strongly urge both sides to get back to discussions at the bargaining table — that’s where solutions and a fair deal will be found,” continued Bains.
“They have successfully bargained numerous collective agreements together without any outside involvement. It’s our expectation that they will be able to do so again.”
Make that “our hope,” because intervening in this dispute is the last thing the New Democrats want to do.
Bains delivered a dozen variations on that basic statement in media scrums over the next hour or so, in keeping with the view that labour ministers should say as little as possible in the midst of a dispute.
One hint from the minister that he might intervene would end any chance of further negotiations, was the way Bains himself put it as he entered the legislature for the afternoon sitting.
Inside the house, he ran into a storm of abuse from the B.C. Liberals for letting the transit dispute drag on for days without making any effort toward a settlement.
“The minister of labour is so totally invisible on this file that no one even knows his name,” declared Opposition leader Andrew Wilkinson at the outset of question period. “When is this minister of labour going to actually do something rather than sit in his office and smirk?”
Bains fired back that the Liberals, with their record, were in no position to give advice about collective bargaining.
“If they ever talk to anybody who has done any collective bargaining, they know that the best collective agreement comes at the bargaining table,” said Bains, a veteran of bargaining during his days as an official with the IWA. “Negotiations take place not in the media, not in this chamber — at the bargaining table.”
The minister managed to keep his cool when Wilkinson escalated the “sit in his office and smirk” line to “sits on his duff and does no work at all.”
But his composure began to fray when Liberal MLA Jas Johal picked up the line of questioning.
Johal underscored the bus system’s status as an essential service, with boardings now exceeding 400 million a year.
“People use transit to go to work, go to school. They have no other choice. Both sides not negotiating holds the public hostage.”
He accused the minister of labour of having entered “some sort of NDP witness protection program — he has not been heard from by the people of Vancouver.”
Then the key question: why had not Bains exercised his powers under the Labour Code to appoint a mediator?
Bains challenged Johal’s credentials to ask for the appointment. “I don’t know if the member has ever been involved in collective bargaining. I don’t think so.”
Johal fired back that he had indeed been involved in bargaining contracts during his days working in television. Moreover his experience was more recent than that of Bains, whose work with the IWA dated back 25 years or more.
The labour minister then lost it a bit, saying that if Johal really had done collective bargaining, “he wouldn’t be asking a stupid question like this.”
Stupid to ask if it were not time to appoint a mediator? Premature, maybe, if there’s any hope of the parties getting back to bargaining. But hardly stupid.
From where I was sitting in the gallery, I could see NDP house leader Mike Farnworth signal to his colleague to cool it. He knew the Liberals would make political hay of the gaffe, as indeed they proceeded to do straightaway.
“I have never, ever heard a labour minister of any political stripe dismiss the suggestion of the appointment of a mediator as being stupid — ever,” declared Liberal MLA Mike de Jong, who served a year as labour minister in the last government.
Would Bains explain to people “who are going to be at their wit’s end because of a labour dispute, how it’s appropriate to characterize the appointment of a mediator, who might help bring settlement to that dispute, as being stupid?”
After that, a more subdued Bains fell back on the talking points that were printed out in a binder in front of him.
But later in the afternoon he acknowledged he’d gone too far and withdrew what he characterized as “language that was not parliamentary.”
The labour minister has a number of options under the Labour Code to try to resolve a dispute, including appointment of a mediator, a special mediator, designating some services as essential or ordering a vote on the last offer on the table.
Or the government could legislate a cooling-off period, combined with the appointment of a mediator.
Bains is right that the labour minister should not tip his hand if there is any chance of the parties settling on their own.
But if the talks fail again? If folks in Metro Vancouver find themselves waiting for a bus that never comes, I doubt they’ll forgive the minister for not using his powers to try to settle the dispute.
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