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"Workers in Ontario — workers everywhere — benefit from the board's findings and rulings."
Toronto (5 Jan. 2012) - In a ruling released in late December, the Ontario Labour Relations Board (OLRB) decided against Vale mining company in a case stemming from the year-long strike by United Steelworkers (USW) in Sudbury, Ontario.
During the bitter strike at Vale, the company banned USW Local 6500 Vice-President Patrick Veinot from its property and thereby denied membership access to him on company property. Sixteen months later, in a stinging rebuke to the company, the OLRB has found that Vale's conduct is unlawful. The board has ordered that the company cease and desist.
OLRB Chair Bernard Fishbein wrote, "I think the message Vale Inco has sought to communicate is cold and hard (regardless of its precise motivations) and I conclude that there has been a substantial interference both in the administration of the Union and its representation of employees (or in the words of the Canada Labour Relations Board that have "the effect of undercutting or weakening the union").
"Our membership welcomes the Vice President back to their workplaces to perform his duties on their behalf and so do I," beamed Local 6500 President Rick Bertrand, a long-time colleague and associate of Veinot. As Vice-President, Veinot chairs the important grievance committee, meeting with grievors and union stewards on company property to work through the grievance procedure and enforce the collective agreement.
USW District 6 Director Wayne Fraser, a former Vale employee and a Sudbury Ontario local said, "Recovery from such a bitter strike is no easy task. Perhaps this decision is the beginning of the recovery process. The board has made it quite clear: Vale's post strike assault on the continuing determination and solidarity of our members will not be tolerated. The interference in the union's administration must stop. This is a major victory that all right-thinking people will savour for a long time."
USW Canadian National Director Ken Neumann congratulated Veinot, "Patrick has become a living symbol of the union's strength. Like all discharged strikers, Patrick and his family have suffered at the hands of this autocratic employer hell bent on achieving its goals without regard to the interests of its employees. We all hope that this decision is the beginning of a new era of working together."
Like eight others fired because of alleged strike-related conduct, Veinot was discharged from employment during the strike. The matter of the discharged strikers forms the core of a separate proceeding before the OLRB.
"The USW eagerly awaits release of the decision on the company's failure to make every reasonable effort to make a collective agreement — the bad faith bargaining complaint," emphasized Neumann. In that case, the union is asking the OLRB to direct that Vale allow the discharges to be heard by an independent arbitrator who can reinstate the employees to employment if the company fails to establish proper cause for their discharges.
Veinot was discharged from employment during the strike, when he held no union office. Vale alleged that he engaged in wrongdoing in connection with an alleged incident involving a strike replacement employee. Along with two other strikers, he was charged with criminal harassment and a trial was held early in 2011. All three were acquitted of the harassment charges. As the OLRB noted, "in the words of the trial judge, 'there is insufficient evidence to link any or all of them with this allegation of criminal harassment.' "
Because Veinot remains a discharged employee subject to the complaint pending before the OLRB, Vale refused him entry on company property to engage in union business even though he assumed the Vice-Presidency following the strike.
Wes Dowsett, USW Area Co-ordinator, when he read the decision of the board said, "Not only can Patrick walk with his head high through the mines and mills of Vale and speak with our members, but all workers in Ontario — workers everywhere — benefit from the board's findings and rulings. You just cannot interfere with the work we do for our members. Our members have rights and so does the union."
USW counsel Brian Shell said: "The prohibition against interference in the union's administration has been a controversial provision for many decades. Its scope and breadth has never been fully appreciated. In this case, the new chair of the OLRB has moved the section to a higher plane and has applied the law in a plain and purposive manner to limit the imperial authority of a powerful employer's practice of unilateralism. The decision reflects a board willing to engage and intervene to set matters right. It is a welcomed change."
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