United Food and Commercial Workers International Union v. Coca-Cola Ltd.
[1989] OLRB Rep. January 1
2354-87-R United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, Applicant v. Coca-Cola Ltd., Respondent v. Group of Employees, Objectors
BEFORE: K. G. O'Neil, Vice-Chair, and Board Members D. G. Wozniak and H. Peacock.
APPEARANCCES: E. Posen for the applicant; M. Farson for the respondent; D. Davidson and I. Hogan for the objectors.
DECISION OF TILE BOARD; January 5, 1989
This is the continuation of 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 decision below deals with the issue of the appropriate bargaining unit. The issue in dispute concerns the community of interest of two persons employed as service mechanics in the Belleville area. The applicant takes the position that because of the geographical separation of these employees from the respondent's main operation in Kingston, there is not sufficient community of interest between these employees and the employees in Kingston to include them in the bargaining unit. The respondent takes the position that its operation is an integrated one including Kingston and Belleville and therefore that the two employees should be included in the bargaining unit. An examination was conducted by a Labour Relations Officer and a hearing was held to hear the submissions of the parties on the transcript of that examination.
The respondent is in the business of selling soft drinks and related products to individuals and businesses in part of Eastern Ontario. It does so out of a plant in Kingston where over thirty employees report to work, and an office with a warehouse attached in Belleville, where two service mechanics and a sales supervisor report to work. About nine years ago, the company closed its Belleville plant, at which the two Belleville servicemen, Lloyd Weagent and Scott Bain, formerly worked, as a serviceman and shipper, respectively. The geographic territory served by the respondent includes the area from Brighton to the west, east to the International Bridge, north to Denbigh, the southern boundary being Lake Ontario. There are four service mechanics, two operating out of Belleville, and two operating out of Kingston, reporting to a common supervisor in Kingston. The area serviced by these servicemen is the same general area covered by sales representatives and delivery employees who report to work in Kingston.
We were referred to the Usarco case, [1967] OLRB Rep. Sept. 526 at paragraph 13 for criteria which were agreed by both parties to be relevant