Summary

Keywords

Labour relations - Certification.

Summary

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Labour Relations – Unions – Certification – Can the Labour Board arbitrarily determine when a union can circumvent the true wishes of the majority of employees in an application for certification.

There were two separate applications for certification involving the same employer, the applicant, Jones’ Masonary Ltd. (“Jones”). One trade union sought certification with respect to the employer’s labourers (the respondent). The respondent is the Labourers’ International Union of North America, Local 900 (“Labourers’ Union”). The other trade union sought certification with respect to the employer’s bricklayers. Common to both applications is the fact that they were filed on a Saturday. In its analysis, the Board confirmed that “the matter in issue here has been addressed many times” and a “practice” has been established of assessing the level of support “on the date of application”. To be considered for the purposes of a construction certification, the person in question must be both actively at work on the date of the application, and working in the craft on the date the application for certification is filed. The Board concluded that Saturday, December 4 was the appropriate date on which to assess the level of support for the Labourers’ Union and it had the necessary level of support to be certified as the bargaining agent. The Board did not follow its usual practice in the case of the Bricklayers as the application offended the representation principle. The Bricklayers’ Union did not seek judicial review of the Board’s decision.

The Labourers’ Union’s application for judicial review was dismissed. The appeal was dismissed by a majority of the Court of Appeal.