NDP Leader Avi Lewis is promising a “hot summer” of organized labour action if any revisions to the Canada Labour Code threaten the right to strike. Government consultations on modernizing federal labour relations closed Monday, but Ottawa has not said what, if anything, it intends to do with the code.
Parliament is preparing to debate a private member’s bill from Manitoba NDP MP Leah Gazan that would remove section 107 of the Canada Labour Code — the clause that lets the minister intervene in a labour dispute and end a strike. The Canadian Labour Congress says the ministerial back-to-work power has been used eight times since June 2024, most recently to end a flight attendant strike hours after it began.
Speaking on Parliament Hill alongside rail and airline union representatives, Lewis warned that Prime Minister Mark Carney will “face the political fight of his life” if the right to strike comes under attack, predicting “another uprising” reminiscent of the response to last summer’s Air Canada strike. Union representatives said employers use section 107 to avoid bargaining in good faith.
Reporting by David Baxter, The Canadian Press, via Narcity. Reproduced for reference under fair dealing (Copyright Act, s. 29).