BCFED President Irene Lanzinger will speak at a rally Monday afternoon in downtown Vancouver to support 50 Canada Line cleaners who are at risk of losing their jobs because of contract flipping around the provision of cleaning services at stations along the line.
Lanzinger will urge the provincial government to close loopholes in the provincial labour code that allow employers to use contract flips to terminate workers with hard-won collective agreements in order to keep wages and benefits low.
The workers—who are members of the Service Employees International Union Local 2—are at risk of losing their jobs because the private operator of the Canada Line, the multinational SNC Lavalin, has flipped the cleaning contract to a new cleaning company.
Closing the loopholes and extending what’s called successor rights to workers who are affected by contract flips is a major demand that the labour movement is advancing through the provincial government’s labour code review process to level the playing field for working people in BC.
The rally is set for 3:45 pm on Monday, September 17 at the Vancouver City Centre Station, Georgia and Granville in Vancouver.