Labour-Management Relations in the Construction Industry: The Findings of the Goldenberg Commission

Abstract

Since the Second World War there has been a growing awareness that labour relations in the construction industry do not lend themselves to legislative frameworks designed to cope with union-management relations in general. In the United States this has given rise to a number of provisions in the federal legislation which have particular reference to the labour problems of the construction industry. Under the Taft-Hartley Act, for example, there was the banning of the closed shop and the prohibition of jurisdictional disputes and certain types of secondary boycotts. More recently, under the Landrum-Griffin Act, unions in the building trades were exempted from some of the restrictions which apply to union-security arrangements and to the employment of secondary boycotts in industry and commerce generally.That there is also the need for a special legislative approach to the labour relations problems of the construction industry in at least one jurisdiction in Canada has been shown by the work of the Goldenberg Commission in the Province of Ontario. After setting this work in perspective, this article will focus on the implications of the Commission's findings for the applicability of both the Ontario Labour Relations Act and such protective labour statutes as the Industrial Standards Act.