B.C.’s biggest construction projects, LNG Canada, the Site C dam and the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion, are all open-shop work sites, with non-union, independent union and traditional building trades represented to get them built despite a growing skilled labour shortage.

Easier union certification and raiding drives allowed every summer are aimed at these and future projects, as the B.C. NDP government attempts to restore the dominance of traditional U.S.-based unions in heavy construction. Non-union and independent contracting is now up to about 80 per cent of the B.C. construction industry.

B.C. business organizations are registering their protests to the NDP government shutting them out of discussions on an abrupt rewrite of labour law to remove secret-ballot voting from union certification and allowing annual union raiding in construction work. Labour Minister Harry Bains re-introduced the changes in the B.C. legislature this week, after they were rejected by former B.C. Green Party leader Andrew Weaver in the 2019 minority government.

Leaders of the B.C. Chamber of Commerce, Business Council of B.C., the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, Greater Vancouver Board of Trade and Surrey Board of Trade issued a statement April 7, saying Bains acted “without any meaningful consultation with employers, and at a time when businesses are still reeling from the pandemic.”

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