MINER DETAILS – Don’t reward picket-line violence

It was a ghoulish display of political opportunism, when Ontario Labour Minister Bob Mackenzie used the death of nine miners in Yellowknife to his advantage.

Only days after a fatal explosion at the Giant gold mine in the Northwest Territories’ capital, Mackenzie said Ontario’s proposed new labor law would prevent such violence in his province. Mackenzie, apparently, assumes the union is responsible to some degree for the deaths.

That, of course, is far from clear. Only a court of law can determine who is responsible for a criminal act such as the “multiple homicides” the RCMP are investigating in Yellowknife.

And the union is not likely to be implicated, regardless of who is eventually charged. Union leaders have a habit of passing the buck when it comes to acts of violence. Unlike management, which has to take responsibility for all its “members,” the union can simply beg off when union workers resort to violence saying it can’t be held accountable for individuals who act on their own. Mackenzie, however, jumps to the conclusion that the deaths were the result of the bitter strike that has torn the mine and the community apart for the past four months.

But his proposals to disallow companies to hire replacement workers during a strike would give unions an unfair advantage in labor negotiations by taking away a business owner’s alternatives. He denies owners the right to protect their investment.

What a way to argue for greater union power. Mackenzie is saying the way to curb picket-line violence is to give in to the thugs who instigate it. By appeasing union pickets — changing the rules so management can’t “antagonize” strikers — Mackenzie hopes to keep them in a more polite mood. Mackenzie’s proposals will certainly change labor relations in Ontario, but not for the better. Giving unions more power without giving them more responsibility will only increase labor tension.

That’s what has happened in Quebec since it banned replacement workers in 1976. A study commissioned by the Ontario government in 1990, but never released to the public, shows that Quebec suffered more strikes and more working hours lost to stoppages after it outlawed replacement workers. It’s clear that appeasement simply doesn’t work. If Mackenzie wants to improve labor relations, he should try to create a level playing field, not one that is weighted in labor’s favor. And if he wants to reduce picket-line violence, he should seek to have existing laws enforced more vigorously, not reward violence by giving its perpetrators more power.