Big win for unions as ruling says bargaining protected - CBC News
In a case that pitted B.C. health unions against highly contentious labour legislation, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled Friday that the collective bargaining process is protected by the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
In a 6-1 decision, the high court threw out sections of British Columbia's Bill 29, saying they interfere with that process 'either by disregarding past processes of collective bargaining, by pre-emptively undermining future processes of collective bargaining, or both.'
The law, passed by Gordon Campbell's Liberal government in 2002, allowed the province to tear up the B.C. Hospital Employees Union contract and led to the layoff of more than 8,000 unionized health-care workers. Two years later, under Bill 37, the government imposed a 15 per cent pay cut on HEU members.