(The following article is from the December 1-31, 2007 issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 133 Herkimer St. Unit 502, Hamilton, ON, L8P 2H3.

PV Vancouver Bureau

Latin-American construction workers were intimidated by companies building the Canada Line, according to a Nov. 9 ruling by the B.C. Human Rights Tribunal.

     The ruling covers thirty workers from Costa Rica, Colombia and Ecuador, brought by the companies to Vancouver to operate the tunnel-boring machine being used to construct the Canada Line linking Vancouver with the city's international airport.

     The tribunal found the workers had been pressured into signing a petition drafted by management, repudiating the Construction and Specialized Workers' Union Local 1611. Two workers testified they were called to a manager's office and asked to sign the petition stating they did not want the union to represent them as part of a human rights complaint against SELI Canada Inc., SNCP-SELI Joint Venture and SNC Laval in Constructors (Pacific) Inc.

     The tribunal ruled that the action was "an attempt to intimidate and coerce individual members of the complainant group to withdraw their support for the union to represent them in this complaint. Second, it was an attempt on the employer's part to create evidence to be used to attack the union's representative status."

     The tribunal found that the tunnel boring employees perform specialized work, making them dependent on the companies for food, housing and future work when the Canada Line construction is completed. The employers were ordered to cease these anti-union actions and pay half the union's costs of launching the complaint. Further, the phony petition cannot be considered as part of the main human rights complaint by the union, which deals with the issue of equal pay for equal work.

     It was revealed in 2006 that the companies were paying the Latin American workers ten to fifteen dollars less per hour than the rates of $20-$25 for the same tasks paid to domestic workers. Until that complaint is heard, the tribunal has ordered the companies to avoid further contact with the workers except in the course of day-to-day work.

     The main complaint to the B.C. Human Rights Tribunal has yet to be heard. Earlier this year, the B.C. Labour Relations Board ruled that including room and board paid by employers, the foreign workers were making an equivalent wage to domestic workers.

     But the history of this case shows that it was only when the workers sought support from the labour movement that their pay and conditions began to improve. It was only during the organizing drive last year that wages were increased to $10.43/hour. Essentially, the employers' two-fold strategy has been to agree to some pay increases, while fighting tooth and nail to decertify the union and drag out the process of negotiations and hearings until construction is finished in late 2009.

Found at: https://peoplesvoice.ca/articleprint08/09__LATIN-AMERICAN_WORKERS_WIN_B_C_.html