Courtesy: The Canadian Press

By Thomas Doucet

Union Rule Change

New union rules brings B.C. back to a single-step system

Apr 6, 2022 | 4:06 PM

VICTORIA—The Minister of Labour announced today that will make it easier for workplaces to unionize.

This new process means if 55 per cent or more of employees in a workplace indicate their intent to unionize by signing union membership cards, a union will be certified and no further vote is required. If between 45 per cent and 55 per cent of employees sign union membership cards, a second step consisting of a secret ballot vote is required for certification.

“Throughout this pandemic, we’ve seen that many people want to make their workplaces safer, provide more input to their work schedules and negotiate better wages and benefits, and they should be able to do this without barriers,” said Harry Bains, Minister of Labour. “The current two-step system can lead to interference in organizing. Under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, workers who wish to collectively organize must not be impeded in any way.”

The current two-step process requires a minimum of 45 per cent of workers on a job site to sign membership cards. When that threshold is met members must then vote again to join the union.

This means that if 60 per cent of workers sign membership cards in the old system a vote would happen. In the new system that workplace would be able to certify and no vote is required.

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“The nature of work has changed, with growing wealth inequality and new types of precarious and gig work,” Bains said. “Workers want to be valued and they want to have a say. This is about giving workers the choice to speak with a collective voice for fair working conditions.”

During 1973-1984 and 1993-2001, when the single-step certification system was in place, B.C. had higher union certification rates. The current two-step system has been in place since 2001.