November 20, 2007

CMAW wins right to sit on Allied Hydro Council; UBCJA appears not to notice

CMAW has won another major victory at the BC Labour Relations Board, but the international carpenters union out of Washington, D.C. appears not to have noticed.

On Oct. 16 a labour board panel ruled that CMAW could replace the BC Provincial Council of Carpenters on the Allied Hydro Council, the group of unions which negotiate a poly-party collective agreement for all construction on BC Hydro facilities. This decision in effect reversed an earlier LRB decision which went against CMAW.

Representatives of the international carpenters union have apparently been telling employers and others that CMAW was denied the right to participate in the Allied Hydro Council, contrary to the board's recent decision.

When CMAW applied to replace the Provincial Council of Carpenters on the Council last March, the board turned them down after other unions claimed that CMAW would destabilize the Council.

CMAW appealed that decision in October, and after hearing extensive arguments from lawyers for all sides the panel noted that the unionized sector of the construction industry was losing market share, and that CMAW's structure was an attempt to regain that work by organizing on an industrial model.

"Constituent members of a poly-party union are not required to like one another or to agree with one another's views on all topics; they are required to work together in a way which is ultimately not self-defeating but rather is for the greater good -- that is for the good of the employees which they collectively represent," the panel said. The panel also noted that CMAW had participated fully with BCBCBTU in the successful negotiations for a new collective agreement with CLRA.

The panel observed that the Allied Hydro Council decision would also be applicable to collective agreements negotiated by councils of unions at SFU, Vancouver School Board and Vancouver Shipyard.

To download the full text of the 18-page decision, click here.