CLAC launches website to support the rights of all B.C.’s skilled workers
Ryan Bruce, CLAC's BC manager of government relations. — Photo courtesy CLAC
Langley, BC—CLAC launched its #FairandOpenBC website today as part of a campaign urging the BC NDP to reverse their decision to restrict access to public infrastructure projects to members of the international Building Trade Unions (BTU).
“CLAC is taking a stand on behalf of all British Columbia’s skilled workers who have been left out of the NDP’s restrictive project labour agreement,” says Ryan Bruce, CLAC’s BC manager of government relations. “We are calling upon the NDP to protect workers’ rights to choose their union representation, and to drop this regressive labour monopoly.”
On July 16, the BC NDP announced the deal they negotiated with the Allied Infrastructure and Related Construction Council, a conglomerate of American-based Building Trade Unions, which will force all workers on public infrastructure projects to join the BTU.
CLAC and numerous major industry stakeholders responded, filing a petition in the BC Supreme Court, asking for a decision to quash the forced BTU affiliation requirement on constitutional grounds.
“Freedom of Association is a fundamental right guaranteed under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and we are actively defending that right,” says Bruce.
Over 85 percent of BC’s construction workforce is not affiliated with the BTU.
“We encourage all British Columbians who have been left out of the backroom deal between the NDP and the Building Trade Unions to visit our website and join the fight to keep our province fair and open to all,” says Bruce.
