For Immediate Release
28 February, 2024
Jim Dinn (St. John’s Centre), NDP Leader, says Newfoundland and Labrador can be a leader in the country and introduce anti-scab legislation at the provincial level following the Parliament of Canada’s unanimous support for the NDP’s anti-scab legislation to pass second reading. The NDP in this province have been calling for anti-scab legislation for years, but successive governments have refused to support workers here at home.
“This legislation is historic for the Canadian Labour Movement and we join them in celebrating the hard work done by Canada’s NDP. This legislation will strengthen the rights of workers taking job action at federal government sites across the country,” said Dinn. “The unanimous support of the second reading of the bill shows all parties are supporting the years of struggle of workers by banning the use of scab labour in strikes at federally regulated sites.
“We can do the same here in our province and put our support behind all workers who take job action and force employers to respect good faith collective bargaining instead of bringing in scab labour.
“Jordan Brown has been dedicated to making this happen and has presented petitions, and questioned government ministers for years demanding that they do better for workers here in this province. We will continue to demand that this government stand behind workers and ensure that their abilities to take job action and pressure employers to bargain in good faith are not eroded.
“In 2018, then Minister of Labour Bernard Davis said consultation needed to be carried out. Six years later consultation hasn’t happened. Furey’s government knows the right thing to do is to bring in anti-scab legislation to protect workers, but they refuse to do the hard work because they are seemingly more concerned about upsetting employers who would bring in scabs during a strike.”
“Anti-scab legislation would balance the collective bargaining process and demonstrate that the workers of this province are important to government.”
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For further information, contact Eddy St. Coeur, Director of Communications, NDP Caucus at 729-2137 (o), or eddystcoeur@gov.nl.ca