{"id":20557,"date":"2023-08-10T02:53:59","date_gmt":"2023-08-10T09:53:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/essential.construction\/news\/ici-contractors-report-urges-shorter-strikes-longer-collective-agreements\/"},"modified":"2023-08-10T02:54:00","modified_gmt":"2023-08-10T09:54:00","slug":"ici-contractors-report-urges-shorter-strikes-longer-collective-agreements","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/essential.construction\/news\/ici-contractors-report-urges-shorter-strikes-longer-collective-agreements\/","title":{"rendered":"ICI contractors report urges shorter strikes, longer collective agreements"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Two Ontario contractors associations are calling for reforms to provincial labour legislation to extend the length of collective agreements in the ICI sector, shorten strikes and establish a new designation for smaller projects with potentially lower wages for unionized workers.<\/p>\n

The reforms, they say, would enable the unionized ICI sector to bid and work more competitively. The General Contractors\u2019 Association of Toronto (GCAT) and the Golden Horseshoe General Contractors Association (GHGCA) argue in a paper that many measures in Ontario\u2019s Labour Relations Act (OLRA) are 40 years old and do not meet the needs of contractors or employers in an increasingly complex and competitive sector.<\/p>\n

The paper, titled Planning for Ontario\u2019s Building Boom: Ontario\u2019s Construction Industry and the Need to Reform the Labour Relations Act, was released Aug. 1. Other recommendations included the expansion of project agreements and an increase in the roster of subcontractors that can be tapped in smaller jurisdictions where there\u2019s a lack of qualified union subcontractors.<\/p>\n

GCAT executive director Jim Vlahos said the associations are staunch supporters of the traditional building trades and have been working with them in developing the proposed reforms: \u201cI don\u2019t believe it\u2019s possible for us to advance any of these items to government without the support of the building trades.\u201d<\/p>\n

The paper said the \u201cstagnation\u201d of the ICI sector \u201chas fettered the growth of the unionized sector of the ICI construction industry.\u201d<\/p>\n

Unionized contractors have been increasingly cut out of projects involving public libraries, local sports facilities, small retail facilities, schools, fire halls and police stations, the report stated. Non-union contractors with greater flexibility in managing trades are getting a lot of the work.<\/p>\n

In the proposed new \u201cSpecial Institutional and Commercial\u201d sector, the relevant collective agreements would continue to be trade based, but with \u201cflexible hours of work, mobility of manpower and base wage rates below the current ICI wages.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of the unionized legislation is designed to support contractors and more major projects. So on smaller projects, with unionized contractors, the legislation makes it more difficult to operate,\u201d explained Tom Kemp, president of Kemp Construction of Hamilton, a GHGCA member.<\/p>\n

\u201cHonestly, the wage differential is not as big a problem as the ability to be flexible on the worksite\u2026We know that the unions recognize this issue as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

The paper said workers employed in the new sector would be dedicated to the sector, \u201cthereby creating a workforce which has a continuum of work, steady wages and benefits and the premier training and safety programs.\u201d<\/p>\n

File photo \u2013 Karen Renkema of the Progressive Contractors Association of Canada said her association would support OLRA reforms that lead to more competition.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Vlahos, a former adviser with the Carpenters\u2019 union, said the goals of the report\u2019s six recommendations are to create competitiveness and certainty. By increasing the length of ICI agreements to four years from three and reducing the length of strikes to a maximum of a month-and-a-half followed by arbitration, matching the period permitted in some residential agreements, he said, workers and employers will have another year\u2019s worth of certainty.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd they don\u2019t have to worry about a potential work stoppage or any issue relative to what they\u2019ll be earning for that year,\u201d said Vlahos of the workers.<\/p>\n

The negotiating season of 2022 was damaging to the sector with numerous rolling strikes compounding problems for contractors, said Jason Ball, president of Ball Construction of Kitchener, also a GHGCA member.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause of that, we lost this idea of certainty,\u201d said Ball. \u201cIn the residential sector, if you start a strike May 1, you have to be back at work on June 16. If you start a strike June 14, you still have to be back on June 16.\u201d<\/p>\n

The report notes currently the OLRA provides for the creation of project agreements in circumstances in which the project is \u201ceconomically significant.\u201d Only union trades can be used and there can be no strike or lockout.<\/p>\n

But with smaller government projects, the report notes, \u201cThese projects have also been essentially lost to the small and medium-sized contractors.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thus, it was recommended that on all government projects having a value in excess of $5 million, project agreements be permitted and \u201conly members of the trade union performing the work may be employed on such projects.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vlahos admitted contractor groups such as the Progressive Contractors Association of Canada (PCA), whose members have had success in smaller projects such as those targeted by the proposed new designation, had not been consulted in preparation of the report. They are competitors, Kemp said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut we\u2019re trying to make the whole industry more competitive,\u201d Kemp said.<\/p>\n

Karen Renkema, Ontario-based vice-president with the PCA, commented, \u201cWe would support anything that would provide more competition, more flexibility, more ability for everybody to work together.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhere our concerns may be is if there\u2019s legislative measures put in place that would add any type of barriers to our members competing.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Ontario Building Trades could not be reached for comment before deadline.<\/p>\n

A representative of LIUNA said he would not comment on the recommendations given he had not yet received instructions from top executives. Bob Bronk, CEO of the Ontario Construction Secretariat, said the OCS board had not yet met to discuss the recommendations.<\/p>\n

Follow the author on Twitter @DonWall_DCN<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n