The Canada Industrial Relations Board (CIRB) has rejected the Canada Post workers union’s claim that a government-imposed back-to-work order was unconstitutional. On December 13, 2024, federal Labour Minister Steve MacKinnon utilized his authority under Section 107 of the Canada Labour Code to instruct the CIRB to halt the postal workers’ strike and assume control of arbitration for the labor dispute.
The Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) contended that the use of Section 107 to end the strike violated the constitution and raised concerns about potential violations of the workers’ Charter rights. Following a hearing, the CIRB determined that the right to strike is crucial but not absolute.
The board concluded that the invocation of Section 107 does not infringe upon the Charter and lacks the jurisdiction to review the minister’s directive suspending the workers’ right to strike. A dissenting opinion was expressed by one of the three board members, Paul Moist, who aligned with the union’s stance, criticizing the minister’s employment of the labor code as a strategic maneuver to circumvent due parliamentary process and public discourse.
Moist argued that the board should not have enforced the labor minister’s back-to-work order since it curtailed the workers’ right to strike, thus impeding their Charter-enshrined entitlement to a meaningful process of free collective bargaining. Despite CUPW initiating a judicial review, no verdict has been reached by the federal court as of now.
Unions have consistently opposed the government’s use of Section 107 as a means to intervene in labor disputes, asserting that it establishes an alarming precedent concerning workers’ strike rights. They contend that this tool, frequently employed by the Liberal government to meddle in strikes, dissuades federally regulated industry employers from engaging in genuine bargaining and weakens the government’s ability to resolve strikes.
Section 107, part of the labor code since 1984 and seldom utilized until recently, has been invoked multiple times by the Liberal government in recent years. Notably, the government’s utilization of this provision in labor disputes has been highlighted in various instances, including the Air Canada flight attendants strike and conflicts involving Canada’s major railway companies, ports in Montreal and Vancouver, and Canada Post.
