Ontario Electrical Contractor 21 For more than 70 years, Eckler has been helping multi-employer pension plans manage uncertainty. As Canada’s leading actuarial consulting firm, we navigate the complexities of managing these plans by providing unique insights and unbiased advice. VISIT US AT eckler.ca In 1976, an inquiry into the bargaining patterns in the construction industry was headed by Mr. Franks and resulted in a published reported called the Report of the Industrial Inquiry Commission into Bargaining Patterns in the Construction Industry in Ontario.This report is often referred to as the “Franks’ Report.”The Franks’ Report stemmed from a recommendation from the representatives from both management and unions that “a system of wider-area bargaining be introduced into the construction industry” in response to the labour relations mischiefs. Mr. Franks engaged in an extensive series of consultations with the parties and called for briefs from unions, employers, and purchasers of construction services. Each of three briefs submitted supported a change to province-wide bargaining by trade. As such, Mr. Franks recommended a province-wide multi-employer single-trade bargaining scheme in the ICI sector. The Franks’ Report resulted in the 1977 Amendment to the LRA to address the fragmented bargaining structure by consolidating the ICI sector collective bargaining on a province- wide basis by trade.The new mandatory province-wide bargaining scheme required employers and unions to designate province-wide bargaining agents who were vested with exclusive bargaining rights for the trades they represent. The newly amended LRA also put the structure of bargaining out of reach from those at the bargaining table by prohibiting individual bargaining and making the only lawful collective agreement in the ICI sector the multi-employer agreement between the provincial ErBA and the provincial EeBA. Since 1977, the OLRB has repeatedly invalidated union-management arrangements that were contrary to the LRA’s mandatory province-wide bargaining system.The OLRB, therefore, has made it abundantly clear that only province-wide agreements are valid, and any agreement or arrangement reached without the approval of provincial bargaining agents was null and void. The current version of the LRA (R.S.O 1995) preserves the mandatory province-wide multi-employer single-trade bargaining scheme introduced by the 1977 Amendment. The introduction of the mandatory province- wide bargaining scheme has consolidated the fragmented bargaining structure as the new scheme reduced the number of negotiations in the ICI sector from 250 in 1977 to 22 in 1978. Although success in curtailing prevalent labour relations mischiefs initially seemed elusive, significant improvements in bargaining outcomes were achieved in the long run, and stability has become the norm in the construction industry since 1977. While strike activities in Canada as a whole has been declining since the 1980s, the decline has been more pronounced in the construction industry as reflected in terms of the number of strikes, workers involved, and person-days lost. However, it is important to note that the current system is not static, but rather it is continuously evolving, “as unions grow or decline or supplant one another, and as new construction methods affect the kinds of skills and the kinds of workers involved in the industry.” Even to an insider like me, every day is a new challenge under this continuously changing system. StephenA.McArthur is a Partner with Mathews & Dinsdale,Global HR Lawyers.www.mathewsdinsdale.com