www.ecao.org 20 T HISTORY By Stephen McArthur and Victor Kim The Ontario Labour Relations Act (LRA) mandates province-wide multi-employer single- trade bargaining for the industrial, commercial, and institutional (ICI) sector of the construction industry in Ontario. Under the current mandatory province-wide bargaining scheme, there can be only one bargaining agent for the employers (ErBA) and one bargaining agent for the employees (EeBA) for each trade.These provincial bargaining agents have the exclusive bargaining rights for the trades they represent, and the collective agreements they negotiate will bind all employers and all unionized employees in the ICI sector in Ontario. To an outside observer, the current bargaining system in the ICI sector presents a confusing web of relationships, reflecting history, local practice and organic evolution, devoid of any logical or legal explanation.To fully appreciate how the current system works: it is important to understand its historical roots. The current province-wide bargaining scheme is the product of a series of legislative reforms that sought to curtail the prevalent labour relations mischiefs in the construction industry during the 1960s and 1970s.The history of labour relations legislative reform in the construction industry in Ontario has been an attempt to replace a fragmented model based on individual employer labour relations with a more centralized multi- employer model reflecting the features peculiar to the construction industry. Until 1977, the construction industry’s complexity was reflected in its fragmented traditional bargaining structure, and as such, two features characterized the bargaining structure in Ontario: (1) collective agreement applied to a local area; (2) each trade negotiated separately. However, this complex pattern of fragmented bargaining relationship created a considerable degree of instability, inter-union rivalry, and industrial conflict. For example, even though the construction industry during the 1960s represented about seven per cent of non-agricultural labour force and 10 per cent of total union membership, it accounted for nearly 17 per cent of the person-days lost due to strikes. Despite strong pressures to retain local autonomy, the labour relations mischiefs of the 1960s and 1970s resulted in legislative reforms, transforming bargaining structure. In the end, local bargaining patterns gave way to a province-wide labour relations model. History of Provincial Bargaining in Ontario