Ontario Labour Relations Board
[1994] OLRB Rep. January 30
3235-93-R International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees and Moving Picture Machine Operators of the United States and Canada, Applicant v. Cineplex Odeon Corporation, Responding Party
BEFORE: R. O. MacDowell, Alternate Chair, and Board Members J. A. Ronson and P. V. Grasso.
APPEARANCES: Bernard Fishbein, Pat Travers and Al Cowley for the applicant; D. N. Corbett and I. Cohen for the responding party.
DECISION OF THE BOARD; January 18, 1994
1This is an application for certification.
2There is no dispute that the applicant is a trade union within the meaning of the Labour Relations Act.
3The parties do not agree on the description of the unit of employees appropriate for collective bargaining. The union seeks what might be described as a "site specific" bargaining unit -that is, a unit confined to a single theatre complex. The employer asserts that the bargaining unit should encompass a number of theatres in the Metropolitan Toronto area.
4This matter came on for hearing before the Board on January 18, 1994. After hearing the parties' representations, the Board made the following oral ruling:
We can appreciate the employer's concerns about "fragmentation" and the viability of the union's proposed bargaining unit (although long-term viability should also be a concern for the trade union). Those are legitimate concerns from both the employer's perspective, and from a public policy point of view. However, having considered the parties' representations, we are not persuaded that this application is meaningfully distinguishable from the Famous Players case ([1990] OLRB Rep. May 509), or from the Board's most recent decision on this issue between these parties released yesterday (Board Files 3061-93-R and 3111-93-R released January 17, 1994). Nor are we persuaded that the union's "motivation" for organizing the employees affects either our conclusion as to the appropriateness of the bargaining unit, or the overall disposition of the case. It is difficult to see how the union's reason for organizing is relevant to the bargaining unit configuration, but in any event, it does not alter our conclusion that the unit the union has applied for is "appropriate". Even assuming, without finding, the employer's facts to be true, we are satisfied that what we have described as a "site specific" bargaining unit is appropriate for collective bargaining, and [having regard to the union's documentary evidence of support] that a certificate should therefore issue in respect of the unit that the union has applied for.
5The Board found and hereby confirms that the unit of employees appropriate for collective bargaining should be framed as follows:
all employees of Cineplex Odeon Corporation at the Cineplex Odeon Varsity Cinemas in the City of Toronto, save and except assistant manager and persons above the rank of assistant manager, and persons for whom any trade union held bargaining rights as of December 13, 1993.
6The Board found and hereby confirms that more than fifty-five per cent of the employees of the responding party in the bargaining unit on December 13, 1993, the certification application date, had applied to become members of the applicant on or before that date.
7A certificate will issue to the applicant.