National Automobile, Aerospace, Transportation and General Workers Union of Canada (CAW-Canada) v. Davis Martindale and Company Inc. et al.
[1997] OLRB REP. MAY/JUNE 371
0402-95-U National Automobile, Aerospace, Transportation and General Workers Union of Canada (CAW-Canada), Applicant v. Davis Martindale and Company Inc., Coopers & Lybrand Limited, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, North American Trust Company, Allstate Insurance Company of Canada, Charles R. McDonald, William Pascoe, Clifford N. Sutts, Aric J. Rusk and BDO Dunwoody Limited, Responding Parties
BEFORE: Roman Stoykewych, Vice-Chair, and Board Members J. A. Rundle and D. A. Patterson.
APPEARANCES: Frank Luce and Fred Lamont for the applicant; Harry Freedman and Mark Crestohl for CIBC and Davis Martindale; George W King for Clifford N. Sutts; Edward W Ducharme for Aric J. Rusk, William Pascoe and Charles R. McDonald.
DECISION OF THE BOARD; May 16, 1997
This is an application pursuant to the provisions of section 96 of the Labour Relations Act, 1995. By order of a decision of the Board (differently constituted) dated September 6, 1995, a hearing was held in this matter to rule upon various preliminary matters, including the objection raised by the responding parties that the application does not disclose a prima facie case and that the Board does not otherwise possess the requisite jurisdiction to entertain this matter. Argument in the matter proceeded on the basis of the facts stipulated in the applicant's materials as clarified by the parties at the hearing.
The responding parties are each receivers or secured creditors of a company known as Windsor Plastic Products Limited, which was placed into receivership on December 23, 1994, and which declared bankruptcy in the following year. The applicant trade union had entered into a collective agreement with Windsor Plastic Products Limited which was effective until February 7, 1995.
Under the provisions of Article 14 of that agreement, the employer is required to deduct union dues and initiation fees from employees' paycheques on the second and fourth weekly pay period of each month. The agreement provides that, thereafter, the employer is to remit such monies to the trade union by no later than the fifteenth day of the following month. It appears that although the monies were deducted from the paycheques of the approximately 450 employees in November and October of 1994, no corresponding remittances were ever made to the union. The company ceased operation in late December, 1994, when its assets were dispersed and liquidated upon the institution of a receivership. The union's subsequent efforts to obtain the remittances from the various receivers or creditors proved to be unsuccessful.
The union claims that the various receivers and secured creditors