Article content

VICTORIA — The B.C. Greens won’t support the NDP’s plan to remove the use of secret ballots for employees seeking to form unions.

Green Leader Andrew Weaver said he’s adamantly opposed to the idea, and will fight the NDP if the party tries to push forward. The NDP needs the Green party’s three votes to pass any legislation.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or B.C. Greens kill NDP's proposed change on unionized secret ballots Back to video

“I will never support legislation that will eliminate the secret ballot,” Weaver said in an interview. “It’s simply not going to happen. And no amount of convincing will ever convince me to do that.”

NDP Leader John Horgan said during the election that if he formed government he would change the current law that requires employees who want to unionize to take a vote by secret ballot. Instead, Horgan said he’d prefer a system called card check, where a majority of union members must sign union cards to certify.

B.C.’s business community, and the Liberal government, says the current secret-ballot system is ideal because it prevents co-workers from intimidating and pressuring colleagues to join a union. Organized labour, which backs the NDP, wants the change to a card-check system, because it makes it easier to certify new unions.