A look at Canada's wage negotiations

Back in the day, as the old people say, when the Industrial Relations Act was being drafted, tripartite stakeholders were consulted and meetings were held and labour laws from all around were examined to see what we could find that was useful for us.

This, apparently, is standard practice among researchers and scholars. One example frequently referred to was labour legislation from around the British Commonwealth, in particular Canada, India and the UK, as we all have common-law roots developed over generations.

In light of our recent lengthy negotiations for terms and conditions of employment for the public service, I recently became curious as to whether governments share negotiating strategies as well.

I couldn’t help asking the question, as a new pop-up on my computer from a CBS news channel stated that, in Canada, the Public Services Union’s latest wage demand, two years into this negotiating round, are increased wages to keep up with inflation, not unexpectedly. And working from home, an admittedly complicated issue to manage.

Since my granddaughter is covered by that bargaining unit, I am following those negotiations with some interest.

The union’s current proposal is a 4.5 per cent increase to cover 2021, 2022, and 2023, while their Treasury Board last put forward an offer to increase wages by 2.06 per cent on average over four years.

These were not the only negotiating issues, however. One I found most interesting was focused entirely on social issues that were new to most tables here: “Mandatory training on 'Awareness of unconscious bias.'”

This is, as you will realise, a very sophisticated approach to preventing grievances from arising and fermenting. Unconscious bias leads to hurt feelings and occasionally perception of an insult when either a manager or a worker is stung by the other’s lack of awareness of the meaning of their picong, or a statement reflecting family or community disdain used as a mere figure of speech or a so-called “jokey,” acceptable, adolescent expression they never grew out of.

But these biases, unconscious or not, are apparent to their victims. Resentments build up and grievances grow and over time become disputes which affect staff morale and productivity.

Students in schools more focused on human development, not just academics, are exposed in primary schools to how to respect diversity, how to speak to others who are different, what respect sounds like and how to handle conflict and problem-solving through peer counselling, not by fistfighting in ditches outside school gates.

Different countries have different cultures and see the education of children into adults in different ways.

That the Canadian Public Services Union sees human relations on the job as being among its “key” responsibilities and that it wants to change through bargaining is a significant reflection of its recognition of its own power and responsibility.

That Public Services Union, unlike ours, allows press access to their negotiations, thereby influencing public opinion in their favour, an effective form of public education. I do not know if TT’s unions allow similar access.

There is no doubt there is widespread interest. Last week alone there were multiple complaints of shoddy services to members of the public from the pensions division of the NIS, the ministry responsible for social services, by maternity and medical services in public hospitals, services in transport, by WASA and the long wait to expose and bring to some form of justice police officers who extort protection money from businessmen who have been complaining for years to the unresponsive departments in charge.

And what about the Licensing Office? Who in the country with a vehicle has not been asked, at least once, for a bribe to get a licence? And someone in high office just learned about that last week?

Not every former colony has developed in the same way,Some blame all their social ills on their generations-past "colonial masters," apparently unaware that every time those words come out of their mouths or their pens, they expose the writer or speaker as showing the world they are suffering what Bob Marley rightly called “mental slavery," binding themselves to an enslaved person's acceptance of someone else’s values and power over their lives. Which is their decision and must be accepted as such.