2091-97-R Ontario Pipe Trades Council, Applicant v. D.E.C. Industrial Contractors Inc., Responding Party.
2098-97-U Ontario Pipe Trades Council, Applicant v. D.E.C. Industrial Contractors Inc., Responding Party.
BEFORE: Inge M. Stamp, Vice-Chair.
APPEARANCES: Craig Flood, R. Kramer and B. Christie for the applicant; D. Cowling (until June 2, 2000), George Morrison and Cathie Lutes for D.E.C. Industrial Contractors Inc. (“DEC”).
DECISION OF THE BOARD; November 3, 2000
These are related matters. Board File 2091-97-R is an application for certification pursuant to the construction industry provisions of the Labour Relations Act, 1995 (the “Act”). This application was made prior to the amendments to section 11 of the Act. In light of those amendments the applicant asked to amend the remedies it was seeking under section 11 and under section 96 of the Act. Board File 2098-97-U is an application under section 96 of the Act alleging the responding party violated sections 70, 72 and 76 of the Act.
At the beginning of the hearing of these two applications it was determined that the Board first deal with the unfair labour practice complaint in order to decide who would be eligible to vote in the certification application.
A representation vote was held on September 15, 1997. The bargaining unit found to be appropriate is the applicant’s standard “ICI and all other sectors in Board Area 8” unit. The ballot box was sealed pending the resolution of challenges to the list.
Hearings commenced February 1998 and were completed in June 2000. Final submissions in response to the Returning Officer’s Notice of Report on Counting of Ballots were received June 20, 2000.
On June 2, 2000, prior to the last day of hearing in this matter, Mr. George Morrison wrote to the Board that the responding party would attend at the hearing but was not in a position to retain legal counsel to continue with its defence. On the last day of the hearing, June 13, 2000 Mr. Morrison requested an adjournment. The applicant opposed this request. The Board ruled that given the length of time since the filing of this application the request for an adjournment was denied. As he was leaving the hearing Mr. Morrison advised the Board “you certify us – you do whatever you have to do”
Board File 2091-97-R
- After considering the submissions of the parties and the materials filed, the Board determined who would be on the list for the purpose of the count and directed that the ballots be counted. The Board was satisfied that Chris Jones was terminated because of his support for the applicant. But for the breaches of the Act Mr. Jones would have been at work in the bargaining unit on the application date and therefore would have been entitled to vote. Mr. Morrison, the principal of the responding party, was quite emphatic in his view that he did not want his company organized. The following is an excerpt of a tape recording introduced at the hearing of George Morrison’s statement to Chris Jones:
“Because you (Jones) are trying to get D.E.C. fucking organized. I don’t give a fuck if you want to join a union. I don’t give a shit. I have union guys working for me right now. I won’t tell you who they are or whatever but I have union guys working for me right now because they respect with D.E.C.'s wishes and my wishes in particular. But I (Morrison) am not interested in joining the union. You’re interested in joining the union. I am not interested in somebody trying to organize my fucking company. So what I mean is I don’t need you here. That’s it in a nutshell.”
Subsequent to this conversation and the filing of the unfair labour practice complaint, counsel who was then representing the responding party, advised Chris Jones by letter that DEC offered to rehire him and assured him that he would be free to exercise his rights under the Act without any intimidation of coercion on the part of the company, its management or representatives. Mr. Jones declined the offer.
The Board determined the following persons who cast ballots were entitled to vote: No. 1 (Brown), No. 3(Harris), No. 8(Priestman), No. 9(Robichaud) and No. 13(Jones).
In its decision of September 11, 1997, the Board found the following bargaining unit to be appropriate for collective bargaining:
all steamfitters and steamfitters’ apprentices in the employ of the responding party in the industrial, commercial and institutional sector of the construction industry in the Province of Ontario and all plumbers and plumbers’ apprentices and all steamfitters and steamfitters’ apprentices in the employ of the responding party in all other sectors of the construction industry in the Municipality of Metropolitan Toronto, the Regional Municipalities of Peel and York, the Towns of Oakville and Halton Hills and that portion of the Town of Milton within the geographic Townships of Esquesing and Trafalgar, and the Towns of Ajax and Pickering in the Regional Municipality of Durham, save and except non-working foremen and persons above the rank of non-working foreman.
On the taking of the representation vote directed by the Board, more than fifty per cent of the ballots cast by employees in the bargaining unit were cast in favour of the applicant.
Section 160(1) of the Act, provides for the issuance of more than one certificate if the