The potential for future clashes between management and labour groups could spell heady times for firms charged with protecting business interests, security companies say.

Firms such as AFI International Group Inc. - a Milton, Ont.-based corporate security outfit that specializes in what it calls "labour dispute management services" - see a possible increase in labour strife and are betting the future for their business is rosy.

"(Growth) is definitely a possibility," says AFI spokeswoman Daryl-Lynn Carlson. "I believe that employers don't like to be put in that situation to have to lock out the union, but at the same time they have to look at their bottom line and what they're faced with in order to operate."

AFI cites a recent Conference Board of Canada report that predicts a future painted with labour clashes as the country attempts to compete globally.

According to Prem Benimadhu, the Conference Board's vice-president of organizational performance, globalization is transforming the dynamics of labour relations in Canada.

"Faced with global competition, management is increasingly determined to hold its ground by demanding concessions or resorting to lockouts," Benimadhu said in a report on Canada's industrial relations outlook for 2006.

While wages in the hot energy sector are rising at more than three times the rate of inflation - which stood at 2.2 per cent in December - demand for concessions is being felt acutely in the forestry sector.

At mill towns across Canada, shutdowns and rising layoffs, caused in part by a market slump, and rising energy costs are putting a squeeze on unions and their members.

In its report, the Conference Board said it does not expect significant labour disruptions in the economy this year, but "labour relations remain strained."

Many unions and employers are failing to work together to address issues such as productivity, employee engagement and investment in new technologies, it said.

AFI says this coming year will be the "ideal time" for employers to prepare for future labour disputes. The company also notes the 2004 adoption of Bill C-45 - a change to Canada's Criminal Code that places more liability on the employer to have a safe workplace - gives the private sector more impetus to secure its installations during a strike or lockout.

AFI and other security companies help businesses facing labour disputes with detailed planning.

Once a strike or lockout begins, they can provide general security, help to move management, picket-line crossers and goods in and out of a facility, or gather evidence to be used to obtain court injunctions on picket lines.

Enough employers have expressed interest in having labour-dispute security services that AFI has expanded beyond the traditional Ontario market, recently opening an office in B.C.

London-based Corporate Investigative Services (CIS), another company specializing in security services for labour disruptions, is also considering venturing into other parts of Canada.

"We're certainly looking at a few clients who are interested in our services in other provinces, so if the opportunity avails itself we certainly will take steps in that direction," says CIS president Guy Parent.

"There aren't really that many exceptional players out there that do this kind of work, but those that do it, do a decent job."

Vancouver's Telus Corp. contracted AFI during last year's protracted labour dispute. Telus's Alberta spokesman Jim Johannsson says the company is trying to put the strike behind it and "focus on the future," but did say the volume of security personnel it needed during that labour dispute was "just massive," leaving the company no choice but to contract out.

Whether hiring private security consultants for a labour dispute is the right move for every company "depends on their situation; I think each company has to look at their needs specifically," Johannsson says.

"At Telus today, we contract all of our security services out already. We do have a security department, but it deals more with the managing of the security needs of the company and not actually executing them. So during the strike, of course, we needed more."

But some question the measure. Unions have made it clear they do not favour the participation of private security firms in labour disputes.

The Canadian Auto Workers (CAW) makes no bones about its displeasure with companies that use these firms, calling it a bad-faith tactic that goes against Canada's tradition of reaching negotiated settlements.

"It's about union busting, about strike busting, and they do it by inciting violence. They're not a solution to labour relations; they're an impediment to labour relations," says Jim Pare, the CAW's director of communications.

"They're not (protecting employers' interests) at all. And the thing is, if that was the case, everybody would use them. There are a handful of lawyers who somehow get misguided ... they hire these guys and the purpose is to create bad labour relations violence - that's the purpose, they're certainly not looking to get things done."

Pare says security companies aren't often used because most employers understand that the path to good labour relations is through negotiations, and that strikers aren't interested in starting violent confrontations.

"People are normally peaceful and they want to get a negotiated settlement - that's the nature of people. But when individuals or companies decide to step off and take a violent path, then violence will be the result."

CIS's Parent says he takes issue with such categorizations, saying he's not looking to bust unions.

"Our focus and everything that we do is that we keep the peace ... that's what our job is," Parent says.

"More than anything else, what we're doing pre-strike planning," usually several months before a strike or lockout begins, he says, "more than the actual execution of the service itself. A lot of our clients are more interested in preparing themselves in the event of a strike than experiencing the strike, obviously."

However, once a strike is on, CIS will do "whatever it takes within legal limits" to protect its client's interests.

Brian Bemmels, an industrial relations expert at the Sauder School of Business at the University of British Columbia, says bringing in a third party to help resolve a labour impasse can be helpful if that party remains impartial. However, he says, contracting security consultants, labour-relations lawyers - either pro-management or pro-union - or other non-neutral bodies can spell trouble.

"If a company emphasizes neutrality in their business, then both sides might be willing to work with them and they can be quite helpful," Bemmels says.

"The unions are going to see (security contractors) more as union busting; that'll just antagonize things more. Companies, as long as they stay within their legal rights, they have the right to do these things and certainly have rights to bring in security to protect the property and so on, but it does antagonize the union."

- with files from CP