Ontario Labour Minister McNaughton has won praise for recent moves – but some question push to woo workers
In a promotional video posted online, Ontario Labour Minister Monte McNaughton closes his laptop, slips out of his dress shoes and into a pair of work boots. The thin, bespectacled minister trades his jacket and tie for a hard hat and safety vest and strides out of his office in slow motion, as an electric-guitar riff that sounds ripped from a truck ad plays in the background.
But Mr. McNaughton professes a belief in “rebalancing the scales” for workers. And he has promised even more pro-worker reforms, including changes aimed at the so-called gig economy of Uber drivers and food-delivery people. It’s also part of an explicit appeal to working-class voters expected to be a major prong of the Ford government’s re-election campaign next year.
But one prominent union leader who has co-ordinated attack-ad campaigns against Conservatives for decades also said he likes what he sees. Patrick Dillon, business manager and secretary treasurer of the Provincial Building and Construction Trades Council of Ontario, said Mr. McNaughton has shown a willingness to listen.
“When you have a person that has the ability to learn and has the courage to change, you can’t knock that,” Mr. Dillon said in an interview. “So I give him a lot of credit for coming from where he was to where he’s at.” Mr. Dias said Mr. Ford’s term started off “terribly,” with the closing of the General Motors plant in Oshawa and a public spat in which the union leader accused the Premier of throwing in the towel. However, Mr. Dias said, in last year’s bargaining with the Big Three U.S. automakers, Mr. Ford made calls that helped the union secure $6-billion in new investments.
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