Ontario Labour Relations Board
[1982] OLRB Rep. March 369
2544-81-R United Steelworkers of America, Applicant, v. Diepdaume Mines Limited, Respondent
BEFORE: D. E. Franks, Vice-Chairman, and Board Members J. Wilson and W. F. Rutherford.
APPEARANCES: J. deKlerk for the applicant; Peter Heslin for the respondent.
DECISION OF THE BOARD; March 30, 1982
Decision
This is an application for certification.
The Board finds that the applicant is a trade union within the meaning of section 1(1)(p) of the Labour Relations Act.
The applicant in this case has applied for certification of a group of employees of the respondent. The respondent takes the position that the present application is premature. The respondent is currently performing work on an abandoned gold mine. The work involves dewatering the shaft and rebuilding much of the bracing in the existing mine. However, the respondent admists that it has no fixed plans concerning any build-up of employees at the mine. Indeed, the respondent took the position that future development was contingent upon too many unpredictable factors to enable such plans to be made. In such circumstances, therefore, it is clear that the Board could not postpone consideration of the application on the basis of a proposed build-up of employees. (See, for instance, United Asbestos Inc. [1974] OLRB Rep. April, 234, for an example, where the build-up principle is applied in a mining operation.)
Clearly, however, the Board cannot deny the present employees of the respondent their right to participate in collective bargaining under the Labour Relations Act. Notwithstanding the Board's use of the build-up doctrine in mining, the Board has also approached the various stages of mining operations by setting out different appropriate bargaining units for the various stages. This policy is set out in the Surluga Gold Mines Limited case, [1967] OLRB Rep. July, 253 which reads in part as follows:
“4. It has been the practice of the Board for many years to find three types of bargaining units appropriate for collective bargaining in mining operations. During the period that the mine site is under construction it is the Board's practice to find that a bargaining unit of all employees engaged in the "construction stage" of the mining operations to be appropriate for collective bargaining. After the construction stage has been completed and during the time that the mine is being developed it is the Board's practice to find that all employees engaged in the "development stage" of the mining operations are appropriate for collective bargaining. Finally, when the development of the mine has been completed and the mine has entered the "production stage" of its operations, it is the Board's practice to determine that a bargaining unit of all employees of the respondent in its mining operations (without qualification) is the appropriate unit for collective bargaining.
It has been the Board's practice to find that a mine has entered the production stage of its operations at such time as the ore which has been mined during the development stage ceases to be stock-piled and is either shipped or processed through a mill at the mine site.
In the instant case, it would appear that the mine has passed the construction stage of its operations since the respondent has taken over the operation of the mine from the contractor constructed the mine. It would further appear from the evidence that since the ore presently being mined is being stock-piled and is awaiting the completion of the mill, the construction of which is to be commenced during the fall of 1967, that the mine is presently in its development stage.
It has been the Board's long standing practice to determine that the three bargaining units described above are appropriate in order to reconcile the build-up situation with the desire of the employees who seek collective bargaining during the various stages of a mine. In applying the build-up principle in mining operations, it is the Board's practice therefore to ascertain which stage a mine has reached in order to determine the appropriate bargaining unit rather than direct a vote of all employees at some future date when the production stage of a mine has been reached and a representative number of employees have been employed.”
The facts in the present case would appear to fit in with the development stage referred to above. The applicant could advance no reason why we should depart from the established practice set out above. Accordingly, we propose to find as appropriate in the present case a bargaining unit limited to the development stage.
Accordingly, the Board finds that all employees of the respondent engaged in the development stage of its mining operations in South Porcupine, Ontario, save and except foremen, shift bosses, persons above the rank of foreman and shift boss, office and clerical staff, employees in the laboratory and in the engineering geological and metallurgical departments, security guards and students employed during the school vacation period, constitute a unit of employees of the respondent appropriate for collective bargaining.
The Board is satisfied, on the basis of all of the evidence before it, that more than fifty-five per cent of the employees of the respondent in the bargaining unit, at the time the application was made, were members of the applicant on March 17, 1982, the terminal date fixed for this application and the date which the Board determines, under section 103(2)(j) of the Labour Relations Act, to be the time for the purpose of ascertaining membership under section 7(1) of the said Act.
A certificate will issue to the applicant.