Thread by @ProfSmithSask

Reading Adam King’s piece yesterday in The Conversation made be think about @BernieSanders’s workplace democracy plan and what a similar plan might look like in #cdnpoli berniesanders.com/en/issues/work…

@BernieSanders First, many of Bernie’s plans are uniquely American. #canlab does not have to worry about public medicare (already exists!) or right-to-work laws (don’t exist in #cdnpoli). Bernie’s plan is so radical in part because the situation for workers in the US is so bad.

@BernieSanders And some of Bernie's plan has been in place in #cdnpoli provs for decades: first contract arbitration; right of public workers to strike (#skpoli since 1944); banning replacement workers (#bcpoli & #qcpoli since 1990s); stopping companies from shifting ownership to avoid a union

@BernieSanders A few others are non-existent in #cdnpoli and would go far to helping workers rebuild unions here. If I were running for office, here is what I would promote from Bernie's plan: 1) Banning companies from using job classifications such as "sub-contractor" or "supervisor."

@BernieSanders The #onpoli workplace review highlighted how devastating these job classification schemes have become and how employers use these categories to avoid legal liability and to avoid unionization. Workers are workers. They should be protected as such regardless of the legal category

@BernieSanders Clamping down on the corporate/franchisee relationship. Bernie is correct when he says that unionization is avoided by corporations who engage in franchisee relations. Too often labour boards are powerless when a franchisee is unionized but support bleeds away for whatever reason

@BernieSanders These legal entities shouldn't be able to avoid unions because of some crafty legal paperwork. And many of these employers (fast food; big-box retail) are some of the worst labour standards violaters. It needs to be fixed.

@BernieSanders 3) Merging is not an excuse for employers to ignore existing union contracts. Bernie's plan would require companies to protect these contracts and 4) would require workers' pensions to be protected from companies paying execs and shareholders before honouring workers' pensions.

@BernieSanders 5) banning anti-union meetings and protecting workers from being fired for no other reason than "just cause" is smart policy and puts the onus on employers to prove that a worker wasn't dismissed for being involved in a union drive or a strike. Some of this exists in #cdnpoli but

@BernieSanders could be much stronger. Any province wanting to deepen worker protections could strengthen their rules here. 6) Bernie's plan to protect precarious workers and those who have never been admitted to collective bargaining laws (domestic workers; farm workers) are long overdue.

@BernieSanders There are no excuses here. Workers are workers and they need the same protections afforded to all other workers.

@BernieSanders 7) I also love improving the so-called "persuader rule" which would again shift the onus on employers to demonstrate that their actions during a union drive were not trying to intimidate (subtle or otherwise) workers from joining a union. 8) bringing back simple card check for

@BernieSanders unionizing and empowering labour boards to immediately certify a union after 50+1 sign a union card is a no-brainer. No more double elections (50+1 cards and then a vote). One election is enough.

@BernieSanders 9) Probably the most important reform is to radically rethink the premise of the Wagner model of labour relations. The idea that organizing on a plant by plant or workplace by workplace is a feasible model to protect workers no longer works.

@BernieSanders As with the franchisee issue earlier, why should one fast-food chain have one restaurant organized; while the same restaurant across the street is not organized is ludicrous. We need sectoral bargaining and fair wage policies to protect workers. This is a long time coming.

@BernieSanders And tbh, this exists in some sectors already in the skilled trades (construction and others) and works relatively well. We should expand this to other jurisdictions. #cdnpoli #canlab

@BernieSanders Bernie's plan is amazing. Could it be stronger? Sure. We could see a great attempt to allow for worker coops; worker-owned industries etc. But that isn't the point. This is kilometres ahead of where we are now and would go a long way to empowering workers and their unions today