[1989] OLRB Rep. March 277
2276-88-R United Association of Journeymen and Apprentices of the Plumbing and Pipefitting Industry of the United States and Canada, Local Union 46, Applicant v. Pioneer Mechanical Limited, Respondent
BEFORE: G. T. Surdykowski, Vice-Chair, and Board Members D. A. MacDonald and H. Kobryn.
APPEARANCES: Neil Meikle and Vince McNeil for the applicant; Abul Syed for the respondent.
DECISION OF THE BOARD; March 14, 1989
1This application came on for hearing on March 10, 1989 for the purpose of hearing the evidence and representations of the parties with respect to "the description and composition of the bargaining unit". In addition, by letter dated January 3, 1989, the Registrar advised the applicant that the Board's trade union status records revealed that the United Association of Journeymen and Apprentices of the Plumbing and Pipe Fitting Industry of the United States and Canada -Local Union 46 was previously found to be a trade union within the meaning of section l(l)(p) of the Labour Relations Act, but that the applicant, that is, the United Association of Journeymen and Apprentices of the Plumbing and Pipefitting Industry of the United States and Canada, Local Union 46 had not. The differences between two "labels" are that the words "Pipe Fitting" appear in the former but the single word "Pipefitting" appears in the latter, and a dash separates the words "Canada" and "Local" in the former, while a comma is used to separate those words in the latter. The Board disposed of this application orally at the hearing.
2At the hearing, the respondent quite rightly did not suggest that the applicant was not a trade union. The Board has previously stated, at paragraph 6 of Hartley Gibson Company Limited, [1986] OLRB Rep. Nov. 1517, that:
Section 105 of the Labour Relations Act sets up a rebuttable evidentiary presumption of trade union status for organizations that the Board has previously found to be a trade union. Because of the nature of that provision, an applicant in certification proceedings is not entitled to the benefit thereof unless its name is identical to that which the Board has previously found to be a trade union. Even a relatively minor difference in name may reflect that an applicant with a name 'similar to" or even "substantially the same as" that of an organization previously found to be a trade union is either an entirely different entity or that it has undergone some change which may result in it being a trade union no longer. It was therefore the view of the majority that the applicant in this proceeding is not entitled to the benefit of section 105 of the Act and that it was necessary for it to establish its status as a trade union independently.
At paragraph 20, the Board also commented that:
Although there are practical reasons, including the speed at which matters are processed by the Board, why a trade union might not want to be known by any name other than its legal name, there is no reason in law why it cannot carry on business under a name other than that legal name, so long as it does not do so for any improper purpose....
3The Board's comments in Hartley Gibson Company Limited, supra, should neither be taken out of context, nor applied without regard to the rationale for sections 104 and 105 of the Labour Relations Act; that is, that certification proceedings, which are supposed to be expeditious, do not become bogged down over matters which do not reveal any concern of substance. The Board is concerned with the label used by a trade union to identify itself to the extent that it adequately identifies it as such. For purposes of the provisions of section 105 of the Labour Relations Act, the label used by an applicant for certification must adequately identify it as an entity which the Board has previously found to be a trade union. In that regard, the Board will generally be concerned only with differences of substance between a label which has been found to identify a trade union (within the meaning of section l(l)(p) of the Act) and the label used by an applicant for certification. Consequently, in the absence of an allegation that it is of some real significance, the Board will not normally concern itself with differences in punctuation, like the use of a comma instead of a dash (or, for example, an "&" instead of the word "and") which are no more than different ways to accomplish the same end; that is, to separate parts of a sentence or label. Nor, in the absence of specific allegations, will the Board be concerned with obvious bona fide minor mistakes in the naming of an applicant for certification (see section 104 of the Act), or different presentations of what is obviously the same thing, like, for example, use of the word "Pipefitting" instead of the words "Pipe Fitting". In our view, it would be unnecessarily technical and a waste of time and resources to do otherwise. In this case, there is no difference of substance between the two labels in question.
4Further, the United Association of Journeymen and Apprentices of the Plumbing and Pipefitting Industry of the United States and Canada, Local 46, the applicant herein, has previously been found to be a trade union in many, many prior proceedings before the Board.
5In the result, and there being absolutely no suggestion why it should not be, the Board was satisfied that the United Association of Journeymen and Apprentices of the Plumbing and Pipe Fitting Industry of the United States and Canada - Local 46 is the same as the United Association of Journeymen and Apprentices of the Plumbing and Pipefitting Industry of the United States and Canada, Local Union 46, and that the applicant is entitled to the benefit of the presumption in section 105 of the Act.
6The Board therefore found that the applicant is a trade union within the meaning of section l(l)(p) of the Labour Relations Act and is an affiliated bargaining agent of the designated employee bargaining agency. Pursuant to the designation issued by the Minister under clause (a) of section 139(1) of the Act on May 14, 1982, the designated employee bargaining agency is the United Association of Journeymen and Apprentices of the Plumbing and Pipe Fitting Industry of the United States and Canada, and the Ontario Pipe Trades Council of the United Association of Journeymen and Apprentices of the Plumbing and Pipefitting Industry of the United States and Canada. The Registrar is directed to ensure that the Board's trade union status records are amended accordingly.
[Remainder of decision omitted: Editor]