Board decision strikes ‘to the core:’ lawyer – by Carol Mulligan (Sudbury Star – February 27, 2012)

The Sudbury Star is the City of Greater Sudbury’s daily newspaper.

The decision by the Ontario Labour Relations Board to directly send the discharges of eight Steelworkers to arbitration is one of the most far-reaching made by the board in a decade, said United Steelworkers lawyer Brian Shell.

The board ruled in favour of the union Friday and is directing Vale to enter into arbitration to decide the fate of eight men fired during United Steelworkers’ bitter year-long strike against Vale.

Shell said the decision goes to the core of collective bargaining, “the core of the right to strike and to the core of the dig-n ity unionized workers are entitled to by joining a union, by having a bargaining agent and by having that bargaining agent do collective bargaining for them.

“It goes right to the heart of the entire system of labour relations,” Shell said. Vale has had little to say about Friday’s decision other than to release this statement Saturday afternoon that its team continues to “review and assess” the board’s 29-page decision.

” The OLRB has made no ruling on the correctness or legitimacy of the charges,” said Vale’s Angie Robson.

“Decisions to terminate are never made lightly by our company and weren’t in these cases. Vale will always act properly to protect its employees against acts of intimidation and violence. We stand by our actions.”

The big question on the minds of union members and others is whether Vale will appeal the ruling.

Throughout the last months of the strike that ended July 2010, and in the 18 months since, Vale has insisted it had the right to fire the eight men because they breached the company’s code of conduct in the community and on picket lines. That hasn’t changed, judging by Robson’s statement.

Shell said he hopes Vale doesn’t challenge the decision by seeking a judicial review, something that might bog the process down. The initial bad-faith bargaining complaint addressed by the OLRB in its ruling was filed more than two years ago.

If Vale goes that route, Shell said that will send the message it wishes “to delay and prolong and require the union to endure further complexities in the legal process.”
The board ruled Vale violated section 17 of the Ontario Labour Relations Act with its failure to make “every reasonable effort” to reach a collective agreement with the union.

That failure was the company did not adopt a reasonable position in connection with the fired eight employees. Nine Steelworkers were fired during the strike, but one retired at the end of the dispute.

The union wanted Vale to accept binding just cause arbitration for the discharged eight and let a third party decide if they should get their jobs back.

The board found that fact Vale wouldn’t agree to arbitration unreasonable and said it violated the Labour Relations Act.

Shell said the ruling expresses the board’s position that Brazil-based mining giant Vale “was completely inflexible and completely disregarded the traditions of collective bargaining under our laws in Ontario.”

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