The provisions of the Employment Contracts Act should be seen in the context of other moves the government made at the same time. Labor s worst fears about the effects of the Act were immediately borne out. The IHC unilaterally cut wages and worsened working conditions when its employees union would not agree to these concessions through negotiation. The union took the agency to the Employment Court, which accepted the employer s argument that its actions were legal under the Act. Strengthened by the Employment Contracts Act, the employers offensive against workers is accelerating.
Employers threaten or implement lockouts almost every day.
Textile workers at the Alliance Mill in Milton have been locked out since January 13 for refusing to sign a contract. Mitsubishi locked out 500 auto workers for one day in January. Now government enterprises are using these weapons to try to eliminate such things as unemployment provisions from their contracts. A new breed of consultants is advising employers how to implement contracts by ignoring the union and going straight to the workforce to sign the contracts. The courts have ruled that these tactics are legal even in cases where the workers have signed bargaining authority over to the union and where there is proof that workers were pressured to sign a contract with the employer.