In Print

Can you be compelled by law to walk a picket line?

By Kevin Steel ⋅ January 15, 2007 ⋅  Email this post ⋅  Print this post ⋅ Post a comment

No. “I know of no law in any of the labour jurisdictions in Canada that forces people to walk a picket line,” says John Mortimer, president of the Canadian Labour Watch Association. “There’s no statute, but there are a lot of tools in [a union’s] arsenal.”

For instance, according to Mortimer, they apply peer pressure, in some cases intimidation, like the threat of expulsion. In some provinces, a union can then go to the employer, claim a member is not in good standing and demand termination.

One of the heavier sticks used by the Public Service Alliance of Canada to keep its brothers in line is small claims court. Following the 2004 strike, PSAC dragged a few select members into court to serve as examples to others, enforcing fines created in 1991 for not walking the picket line. But the union’s victories in court come mostly by default, when defendants don’t appear.

“Trying to defend yourself against a union that has revenues of over $60 million a year presents a formidable challenge,” Mortimer says, so people just don’t show up. But now some are fighting back, and when they do, they win. “I’m not aware of any case where a court has upheld a fine when an employee appeared with a lawyer who knew the law and was able to argue it.”

That may be why PSAC has been arguing vociferously for a federal anti-scab law–not because they want people stickin’ with the union, but because they want a bigger stick to wave at their members.

[This article appeared in the January 15, 2007 issue of the Western Standard.]