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VANCOUVER, Dec. 11, 2015 /CNW/ - One of the container trucking companies holding out against signing the pattern collective agreement with its drivers has no more excuses after a new labour board ruling, says Unifor. Several irregularities in the evidence submitted by CLAC caused the Canadian Industrial Relations Board's (CIRB) to dismiss the application in the "raid" of Unifor's members at Harbour Link Container Services.
Harbour Link has been citing the union membership dispute as a reason to delay bargaining. The company is only one of two companies still behind picket lines.
"Nobody, including Harbour Link, actually believed that CLAC would be successful in interfering in the bargaining process," said Gavin McGarrigle, Unifor's BC Area Director. "Harbour Link has wasted everybody's time. They have little choice now but to sign onto the collective agreement that most of their competitors signed weeks ago."
Roughly 75% of truck drivers represented by Unifor have now ratified a collective agreement that won't expire until July 2019—a major step towards stability at Port Metro Vancouver.
Unifor says that the CIRB ruling demonstrates CLAC's questionable integrity. The CIRB found that some truckers alleged to have signed membership cards did not pay the $5 fee required by law, that an individual had offered to pay the fee for them, and that the receipts provided with CLAC's application were unsigned.
"CLAC's under-handed tactics have been exposed in this CIRB ruling," said McGarrigle. "We know that CLAC is every employer's favourite union, but those tactics don't earn them any respect with truckers."
Unifor is Canada's largest union in the private sector, representing more than 310,000 workers. It was formed Labour Day weekend 2013 when the Canadian Auto Workers and the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers unions merged.
SOURCE Unifor
