High Court Overturns Labour Board Decision

EDMONTON-In an important and strongly-worded decision released yesterday, the Alberta Court of Appeal overturned a controversial Labour Relations Board (LRB) decision which allowed Finning International in 2005 to rid itself of a union collective agreement by establishing a new company for part of its operations. At the time the decision was considered by many to fly in the face of available evidence. (Please backgrounder below on issue, including a timeline.)

“This is an important decision by the three Justices of the Court of Appeal,” says AFL President Gil McGowan. “It reverses a terrible decision by the Alberta Labour Relations Board (LRB). Finning had created a new blueprint for union busting, and the LRB was letting them get away with it. Thankfully the Court of Appeal saw through it and has stopped it.”

The unanimous decision pertains to a dispute in 2005, in which Finning International created a new entity, OEM Remanufacturing, to take over Finning’s component rebuilding operations. In the transfer OEM evaded the existing contract with the International Association of Machinists (IAM) and instead signed a contract with the Christian Labour Association of Canada (CLAC).

An original LRB decision ruled OEM was a successor to Finning and that the two companies were, in fact, a common employer. Normally this would have meant that IAM would have maintained its status as official bargaining agent and the workers would have been protected by the existing IAM collective agreement with Finning.

Two months later, adopting a highly unusual procedure, the Labour Relations Board reconsidered the decision at the request of the employer. In that reconsideration, a five-person “superpanel” consisting of the LRB Chair Mark Asbell, two Vice-Chairs and two Board members overturned the original ruling. IAM then appealed to the courts.

“It was a thinly-veiled attempt to bust our union, and we were determined to fight it,” says IAM Lodge 99 President Bob MacKinnon. “This is an important day for us, the Machinists, and for all unionized workers. It is also a great day for the democratic process: the Court has recognized that where workers have voted to be represented by a union, that decision must be respected by employers in Alberta.”

In its decision, the Appeal Court criticized the LRB superpanel for substituting its opinion for the factual findings of the original panel. The Appeal Court also found that the panel had deviated from well-established successorship principles clearly evident in the Boards own previous rulings and in court decisions. It ruled the decision was “patently unreasonable” and ordered the original decision re-instated. “Patently unreasonable” is a legal term indicating that the decision was “clearly irrational” or “bordering on the absurd.”

“Quite frankly, the LRB messed up on this,” says McGowan. “It speaks to ongoing problems at the LRB and will deepen the growing mistrust unions have with the Board’s lack of visible objectivity. It is gratifying that the Court of Appeals recognized the superpanel’s rush-to-judgment for what it was.”

The decision leaves the IAM free to pursue its attempt to ensure that the successorship decision leads to full remedies for its wronged members.

“It is a shame that workers need to rely on judges to uphold our democratic rights,” notes McGowan. “That is supposed to be the job of the Labour Relations Board.”

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For more information call:

Gil McGowan, AFL President @ 780.218-9888 (cell)
Bob McKinnon, AIM Lodge 99 President @ 780.218-9888 (cell)

BACKGROUNDER: