News Archives

The Defence of Workers' Rights and Social Security, Cuba, March 2008

The Labour and Employment Committee of the National Lawyers Guild in the U.S. are co-sponsors of a conference and study tour in Havana, Cuba in March of 2008 and are encouraging participation by a Canadian delegation. The conference - "The Defence of Workers' Rights and Social Security" - takes place March 17-18, 2008. The details of the trip can be found in the attached brochure.

Please let Susan Philpott know if you are planning to go.

Click here to view the Conference Announcement.

Click here to view the Proposed Program.

National Lawyers' Guild in the U.S. - 70th anniversary

The National Lawyers' Guild in the U.S. has invited CALL/ACAMS members to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the Guild at their 2007 convention in Washington, D.C. - October 31 - November 4, 2007. A number of CALL/ACAMS International Committee members plan to go. Registration fees will be waived for all CALL/ACAMS members who would like to attend, however expenses will have to be covered by individuals themselves. More information is available at http://nlg.org/convention/.

In order to have your registration fee waived you must let the International Committee know no later than September 30, 2007. Contact Susan Philpott at 416.595.2104 or sphilpott@kmlaw.ca.

CALL condemns murder of trade unionist in Monterrey

In a gesture of solidarity and support, CALL sent this letter [English version / Spanish version] to local Mexican officials regarding the need for a full and public investigation following the murder of Rafael Santiago Cruz, a union organizer for FLOC, a union of farm workers in the U.S. with an office in Monterrey, Mexico. CALL received this request for support [click here to see Michael Dale's letter] from the Northwest Workers' Justice Project.
 
CALL is one of a number of labour lawyer associations in an expanding network in the americas. One of the goals of the network is to provide swift access to international cooperation and collaboration for support in causes like this one.

Freedom of Association

The following reports that were published recently by the ILO's Committee on the Freedom on Association concerning the public sector workers in Quebec and North Carolina. Two members of CALL/ACAMS, Peter Barnacle and Claude Melançon, acted on an International Labour Commission to investigate violations of labour rights in the North Carolina case. Our firm also worked on the Quebec public sector case.

Paul Benjamin Lecture

On October 23, 2006, CALL/ACAMS and the University of Toronto Faculty of Law jointly sponsored a lecture by Paul Benjamin, a professor and prominent union side labour lawyer from Cape Town, South Africa. Mr. Benjamin's lecture centered on the challenges of implementing effective labour legislation in post apartheid South Africa.
In addition to practicing union side labour law at Cheadle Thompson & Haysom Inc., and serving as an adjunct professor at the University of Cape Town, Mr. Benjamin has also played a pivotal political and academic role in overhauling the labour law regime in post- apartheid South Africa. He served as principal drafter of South Africa's Basic Conditions of Employment Act in 1997 and the substantial amendments to South African labour laws enacted in 2002. He has also acted as a technical advisor to the Constitutional Assembly in drafting South Africa's current constitution and continues to engage in policy and legislative drafting for the government and the I.L.O.
In his lecture on October 23, 2006, Mr. Benjamin discussed various issues affecting dispute resolution in South African labour relations and highlighted the difficulties that South African labour law has faced in trying to address and overcome a labour market marked by high levels of inequality and unemployment. In particular, Mr. Benjamin analyzed South Africa's efforts to deal with non-standard employment relationship, arguing that "dependent self-employment" should be legally recognized as a category of employment and endowed with many, if not all, of the protections accorded conventional indeterminate employment relationships.
Following the lecture, CALL/ACAMS sponsored a reception at the Faculty of Law. The lecture and reception was attended by a number of CALL/ACAMS members, as well as other members of the labour law community, faculty members and students from the Faculty of Law.

CA4FTA - CALL/ACAMS APPEARANCE BEFORE THE PARLIAMENTARY STANDING COMMITTEE ON INTERNATIONAL TRADE

Mark Rowlinson (USW) and Nick Milanovic (CUPE) appeared on behalf of CALL/ACAMS before the Parliamentary Standing Committee on International Trade for an hour on Tuesday October 17. Following their presentation, the Committee passed a resolution which was put forward by the NDP and supported by the Bloc and the Liberals. The resolution was proposed through the CCIC (Canadian Council for International Cooperation - www.ccic.ca) with whom CALL/ACAMS has been working on CA 4FTA issues.

The resolution states:

"That the Committee report to the House on the topic of the Canada-CA 4FTA negotiations recommending:

• That the Government put in place full and immediate disclosure of all draft texts and Canadian negotiating proposals for the CA4FTA;
• The development of mechanisms allowing for authentic public debate, including stakeholder consultations that are open to civil society and broader public participation; and
• Inform the House that the Standing Committee on International Trade will further study the potential impacts of the Canada-CA4FTA, including human rights issues thus allowing it to make to present further recommendations to the House."

Request for CALL support for a NAALC petition to be filed by the Frente Autentico del Trabajo (FAT)
Last year more than twenty trade union organizations signed on to a NAALC complaint which challenged the proposed revisions to the Mexican labor code. Although the U.S. National Administrative Office eventually decided not to accept the complaint, our allies in Mexico believe that it was extremely useful in generating the publicity and contributing to the political pressure which prevented the "reforms" from moving forward.

Please support the NAALC petition to be filed on October 17th in Mexico by the Frente Autentico del Trabajo (FAT) on behalf of public sector workers in North Carolina who are denied the right to engage in collective bargaining. More detailed information appears below. Click here for an authorization form.

Background
Public sector workers in North Carolina are prohibited by state law from bargaining collectively at either the state or municipal levels, posing a major obstacle to effective organizing.

This prohibition also violates international law. At the request of the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America (UE), an impressive international delegation of lawyers organized by the International Commission on Labor Rights (ICLR), traveled to North Carolina to investigate the impact of this prohibition on working conditions of public sector workers. Among other things, the ICLR conducted a public hearing where workers described the problems they face. The ICLR recently completed its report which is based in large part on the extremely compelling testimony which was presented at the hearing. The report is attached to this message.

Last December, to coincide with International Human Rights Week, the UE filed a complaint with the ILO, challenging the statute as a violation of ILO conventions 78, 96 and 151. Canada, Mexico and Japan are the leading trade partners of the state of North Carolina, and trade unionists representing public sector workers from all three countries assisted us in serving the governor of the state with the petition. Both the PSI and ICEM have associated themselves with the petition.

Lawyers on the ICLR delegation also suggested that a complaint be filed under the North American Agreement on labor Cooperation (NAALC), the labor side agreement of NAFTA.

The Plan
On October 17, the Frente Autentico del Trabajo (FAT) will be filing a complaint with the NAO office and will be organizing a press conference that morning in Mexico City. I have attached an authorization form regarding the case against North Carolina, and we would be most appreciative if you would sign on as a petitioner. We are not requesting financial support, but would appreciate any efforts you are able to make to help publicize the filing and the underlying problem: the deprivation of collective bargaining rights of North Carolina’s public sector workers.

Should you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact UE associate counsel Joseph Cohen or me at 412-471-8919.

Lecture and Reception for Dr. Chengzheng (Earnest) Zhou, June 14, 2006
The reception on June 14 with Dr. Chengzeng (Earnest) Zhou, a Labour Law professor from Nanjing University in the Peoples' Republic of China, at the offices of Koskie Minsky LLP, was a success. More than 20 CALL/ACAMS members and others interested in the Asian labour movement attended (the promise of cold beer helped!). Dr. Zhou talked about a wide range of topics including the basic structure of Chinese labour law and trade union representation, recent legislative developments, and the Chinese experience of the "race to the bottom". He spoke for well over an hour, followed by plenty of questions and discussion.
Thanks again to Professor Michael Lynk of the University of Western Ontario for putting us in touch with Earnest. If you would like to contact Dr. Zhou, he can be reached at earnest@nju.edu.cn.

CALL Tsunami Relief
CALL/ACAMS has been advised by contacts at APHEDA (Australian People for Health, Education and Development Abroad) that the contribution by CALL/ACAMS to vocational training in Aceh has now been received and forwarded to Indonesia. The sponsored training has already commenced. Union Aid Abroad - APHEDA is the overseas aid arm of the Australian Council of Trade Unions.  Click here to see a letter from APHEDA thanking CALL/ACAMS for their contribution to the worker training program in Aceh.  Click here to see APHEDA's newsletter Solidarity Partnerships.

Blaise MacDonald
CALL announces with sadness the sudden death of  fellow member Blaise MacDonald, on June 5, 2006
A native of Glace Bay, Nova Scotia, Blaise was a leading labour lawyer in Nova Scotia for many years, practicing first in Halifax and then from his home at St. Andrew's Channel, on the Bras d'Or Lakes in Cape Breton.
Blaise was a life long trade unionist and champion of the underdog. For many years a member of the Boilermakers Union, he entered Dalhousie Law School as a mature student, and upon graduation launched a career in a union side labour practice in 1977. In recent years he took on criminal cases and was much in demand for jury trials.
Blaise lived and breathed his cases and was never heard to say a bad thing about the workers he represented and understood so well throughout his life. He was known as a tenacious and formidable opponent who was widely respected by other lawyers, arbitrators and the judiciary.
Blaise leaves behind Lois, the love of his life, and their cherished son Sean, who follows his father's tradition as a lawyer in Toronto.
For further details, please visit the CBC website:  
http://www.cbc.ca/ns/story/ns-macdonald20060606.html

Newfoundland Labour Law History
The 15th Annual CALL Conference recently concluded in St. John's, Newfoundland.  Many of those in attendance mentioned to Jack Harris how much they had enjoyed his welcoming speech to the Members at the opening of the 1996 Conference in St. John's in which he reviewed the labour history of Newfoundland. Jack dug it out from the bottom shelf of an old hard drive so we could provide copies to those attending the Conference and, on our request, also agreed that we could post it on the web site.  It is a wonderful story which Jack told very well and you can now find it on the Library page.  Click here to read the speech.

ILO Decision on Quebec (click to view PDF)
Answering a complaint brought against the government of Quebec by the major union federations of the province, the International Labour Organization (ILO) has ruled that Bills 7 and 8, enacted by the government of Quebec in 2003 to deny "employee" status to workers in social and health services and childcare services, are contrary to the principles of freedom of association as defined by international law. Workers who do not have "employee" status under the Quebec Labour Code cannot enjoy any of the protections that are in the Quebec Labour Code and are therefore deprived of the right to organize into certified associations and to have their work conditions determined through collective bargaining. The ILO's Freedom of Association Committee, which rendered the decision, noted that under international law (Convention No 87), the only exclusions to the right to unionize concern the armed forces and the police and that even these exclusions have to be interpreted in a restrictive manner. The Committee thus concluded that the workers in the complaint have the right to enjoy all the provisions applicable to other workers in the Quebec Labour Code or enjoy genuinely equivalent rights.

CIRB Consultation Commmittee
The CIRB Consultation Committee met on March 9, June 7, September 12 and December 13, 2005 and February 28 and May 10, 2006. Reports on the March and June 2005 meetings have already been sent to you.
 
Most of the issue discussed concerned matters of appointment to the CIRB and the problems and challenges associated with that process, questions of Board processes and ways to make it more efficient and responsive and the current process of review of the CIRB regulations by the Standing Joint Committee for the Scrutiny of Regulations.
 
With regards to the appointment process, click here to view a copy of the Consultation Committee's report to the chair of the Board, Warren Edmondson, which was passed on to the former Minister of Labour and has also been passed on to the current Minister. Click here to view a letter from our committee to the minister requesting a meeting to discuss these issues.
 
With respect to issues of Board process, these discussions centred on the delays that parties experience in dealing with the Board and the committee reviewed the situation in other jurisdictions. In fact, a new process for dealing with DFR complaints was reviewed with the Committee before it was made public.
 
Finally, a sub-committee of the consultation committee was created to deal with the question of the review of the regulations consisting of Mary Gleason (Ogilvy Renault), Dianne Gee (Heenan Blaikie), Mary McKinnon (Raven Allen) and either Francois Lamoureux or Eric Levesque of the CSN.
 
The next meeting is scheduled for September 27 to be held in conjunction with a retreat being held by the CIRB. It is anticipated that some members of the Committee will be involved in making a presentation to the members of the CIRB on September 28th.

Former CALL/ACAMS President Honoured
Mel Myers, Q.C. is co-recipient of the 2006 University of Toronto Bora Laskin Award. Mr. Myers is a co-founder and past president of CALL/ACAMS.
The Laskin award recognizes outstanding contributions to Canadian Labour Law. It is named for late Supreme Court Chief Justice Bora Laskin, who was a pre-eminent labour law scholar and arbitrator before he became a judge.
Mr. Myers has now retired from his Winnipeg law practice, and currently sits as Chair of Manitoba's Automobile Injury Compensation Appeal Commission. This body hears appeals of decisions to deny benefits for bodily injury claimants under the Manitoba Public [Auto] Insurance scheme.
Prior to his "retirement", Mr. Myers practiced at the firm now known at Myers Weinberg LLP as a pre-eminent advocate for workers in the areas of labour law and human rights.
In addition to an intense daily schedule of arbitration and labour board hearings, Mr. Myers was involved in historic litigation. Notably, he appeared at the Supreme Court of Canada on behalf of the union in Gendron, and on the question of whether mandatory retirement in The Public Schools Act offended the prohibition against age discrimination in The Human Rights Code in Manitoba. He defended the constitutionality of the Rand Formula under the Charter, and represented the Canadian Labour Congress in the Metropolitan Stores case. He was also the first chair of the Manitoba Human Rights Commission from 1974 to 1978.
Mr. Myers also represented the New Democratic Party at the Monnin Inquiry. Commissioner Monnin determined that a Tory-backed vote splitting scheme had been in operation during the 1995 provincial election, designed to induce aboriginal candidates to run in "swing ridings" and pull votes from the NDP, in violation of the provincial election statutes. As a result of the inquiry the statutes have now been amended to better address malfeasance, and many credit the 1999 defeat of the provincial Conservative government in whole, or in part, to the commission findings.
Mr. Myers also has a passion for teaching, has taught at the University of Manitoba Faculty of Law, and mentored students and junior lawyers tirelessly. His firm now holds an annual union education conference which is named in his honour, and each year the proceeds of the conference are donated to an organization which works for social justice.
As anyone who knows him can attest, he is also a story teller without parallel, and has a passion for the arts, history, sports and his family and friends.
The other recipient is management-side lawyer, Roy Heenan. The award will be presented in Toronto on the evening of May 11, 2006. Tickets for the award dinner are available by calling 416. 977.6618 or through the Lancaster House website: www.lancasterhouse.com.
(Editor's note: If you just want to send congratulations, Click here to e-mail Mel.)

CALL/ACAMS 2006 Conference
 The CALL/ACAMS Conference is being held in Saint John's, Newfoundland May 18 - 21, 2006.  The theme for this year's Conference is:
The Future of Labour Law: A Brave New World or Apocalypse Now?
 What does the future hold for labour lawyers and trade unions, here and abroad? Will our practice and profession continue to grow and develop with new practitioners providing new insights and energy? Will the traditional driving forces of industrial relations, including strikes and lockouts, continue to set the agenda for labour law?
The Agenda Committee is working to put together an exciting and interesting conference program which will examine the future of labour law from multiple perspectives.
Registration will commence the evening of Thursday May 18. The Conference sessions will run from the morning of Friday May 19 to noon on Sunday May 21. The CALL/ACAMS Business meeting will take place over the lunch hour on Saturday May 20.  We hope to have the registration materials for the Conference out to CALL/ACAMS members, as well as on the CALL/ACAMS Website, in the near future.
Click here to register.

Alberta Court refuses injunction seeking the return of documents embarrassing to the Alberta Labour Relations Board and refutes attack on Robert Blair, lawyer for the Alberta Federation of Labour
The Court of Queen's Bench of Alberta refused the request of the Privacy Commissioner and the Alberta Labour Relations Board for a mandatory interim injunction compelling the return of documents it claimed (but did not prove) were inadvertently disclosed which were embarrassing to the Board and in doing so refuted the attack of the Board on Robert Blair, lawyer for the Federation. To view a copy of the decision click here.

CALL/ACAMS speaks out against violence against trade unionists in Colombia
In response to a call for urgent action by Amnesty International, CALL/ACAMS has issued a request to the Colombian authorities to take immediate steps to address the terrible situation facing trade unionists in Colombia. Click here to see the statement by CALL/ACAMS.

ALAL Conference, July 28-30, 2005 Mexico City
Click here to view the report on the recent conference in Mexico City.  
Any questions with respect to this conference can be directed to or .

Recently received from NAALC / NAO concerning minimum standards enforcement in Mexico
This is to inform you that the Canadian National Administrative Office (NAO), established pursuant to the North American Agreement on Labour Cooperation (NAALC), has completed its review of Public Communication CAN 2003-1 and has issued its Review Report. The report is currently available online here.
A news release has been issued and is available at here.
For further information or to receive a printed version of the report, please contact Réal Gagnon at (819) 953-3843.

CALL/ACAMS expresses support for Zanon workers in Argentina
CALL/ACAMS has recently responded to a request for support from Labour Start Canada for the workers at Zanon ceramic factory in Argentina. Click here to see the correspondence.