A commentary by the B.C. manager of government relations for CLAC, the Christian Labour Association of Canada. CLAC represents about 60,000 people.
The provincial government’s restrictive labour model for public infrastructure projects continues to place an undue burden on British Columbians, generating massive cost overruns, reducing bidders and, perhaps most egregiously, denying local and Indigenous workers the right to work.
The work stoppages on the Cowichan District Hospital project represent an inevitable consequence of poor public policy.
Workers with KDC, a Cowichan Tribes-owned company, formed a picket line because, after an extended period clearing the site and hauling gravel without issue, they were informed that they are no longer welcome on the site because they are not members of one of the NDP’s hand-picked donor unions — a requirement under the government’s Community Benefits Agreement.
This might appear to be a strange development for a policy which aimed to provide increased and prioritized access to work for Indigenous and other under-represented groups, but the framework’s discriminatory scheme was baked-in from the start.
About 85 per cent of British Columbia’s construction workers are not members of the NDP’s selected unions. They choose not to be a part of those unions.
They continue to exercise their constitutional right to freely associate with any labour organization of their preference, or to not join a union at all.
The only exception, of course, is when they attempt to work on a public infrastructure project that is funded by their own tax dollars. Eventually, workers were bound to stand and say “no.”
Advocates for fair and open tendering, where workers and employers of all labour models (including non-union) are welcome to participate in projects, have been tackling this issue since its inception in 2018.
They have been bringing scores of workers to the legislature to tell the NDP government how the deeply flawed policy negatively impacts them, their families and their communities.
Sadly, they, along with the majority of B.C.’s construction workforce, continue to be ignored. We can only hope that those standing with Cowichan Tribes can accomplish what so many have hoped for — to prompt the government to open public projects to the public.
In exchange, the NDP government can save itself hundreds of millions of dollars, which they could use to build even more hospitals and other critical infrastructure to benefit communities throughout the province.
The cost of Cowichan District Hospital alone has escalated by $559 million. Imagine how half of a billion dollars could be spent in your community.
It is counterintuitive to restrict your workforce during a labour shortage. It is nonsensical to drive up costs while communities and public programs are struggling. It is immoral to deny Indigenous workers access to work in their own territory.
It is time to stand for change.
