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B.C. business organizations are registering their protests to the NDP government shutting them out of discussions on an abrupt rewrite of labour law to remove secret-ballot voting from union certification and allowing annual union raiding in construction work. Labour Minister Harry Bains re-introduced the changes in the B.C. legislature this week, after they were rejected by former B.C. Green Party leader Andrew Weaver in the 2019 minority government.
Leaders of the B.C. Chamber of Commerce, Business Council of B.C., the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, Greater Vancouver Board of Trade and Surrey Board of Trade issued a statement April 7, saying Bains acted “without any meaningful consultation with employers, and at a time when businesses are still reeling from the pandemic.”
They noted that Bains’ mandate letter from Premier John Horgan, issued after the 2020 snap election that gave the NDP a majority, directs Bains 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.”
