Machinists Win Big Victory in Alberta:
Appeals Court Restores Common Employer Status
at Finning and OEM

Friday October 19, 2007
For Immediate Release

Edmonton, AB – The Alberta Court of Appeal has restored common employer status and successor rights for the IAMAW Local Lodge 99 with Finning International and OEM.

“It’s been a long hard struggle to get this decision and justice for our members,” said a relieved IAMAW Directing Business Representative Bob MacKinnon. “This confirms the protections provided by the Labour Relations Code where an employer transfers a part of its unionized business.”

One hundred sixty members of IAMAW Local Lodge 99 lost their jobs at the Finning Rebuild plant in 2005 when their employer transferred their work to a new facility operated by O.E.M. Remanufacturing Inc. Not only did Finning transfer the work, it financed the acquisitions that gave O.E.M. its existing work, completely financed the costs of building the facility while remaining the 100 per cent beneficial owner of O.E.M.  The IAMAW members were not given the opportunity to transfer with their work to the new plant they were simply laid off.

To avoid bargaining with the IAMAW, O.E.M. voluntarily recognized the Christian Labour Association of Canada (CLAC) as the union in the new plant. The workers there never had a voice or a vote on which union they wanted. The Machinists went to the Alberta Labour Relations Board over denial of successor rights. On April 7, 2005, the board ruled that because Finning provided all of the money to establish operate and control O.E.M., it was a Finning operation and thus a ‘common employer’. That decision gave the Machinists the right to organize the new plant because IAMAW LL 99 has a certification for all Finning operations in Alberta.

Within weeks of that ruling, Finning, OEM and CLAC launched an appeal. The Reconsideration Panel of the Alberta Labour Board reversed the decision and ruled that Finning and OEM were not common employers. The IAMAW then took the matter to the Alberta Court of Appeal.

In its ruling handed down October 17, 2007, the Court held that the Reconsideration Panel of the Labour Board was ‘patently unreasonable’ in overturning the original Labour Board decision. The Court of Appeal noted that “successorship provisions are remedial and require a purposive interpretation in assessing whether a transfer or disposition has occurred. The focus should be on the realities of the collective bargaining framework and the true effect of the overall transaction. The complexity of modern business transactions warrants such an inquiry, and labour tribunals must be wary of creative corporate restructuring or reorganizations that undermine collective bargaining rights.”

“This means that a company can’t simply bankroll a local front man, build a new facility and sidestep any legal obligations to its own unionized workers,” added MacKinnon.

While the Court of Appeal has restored the decision of the original panel, there remains an issue as to remedy. The Board in its Remedy Decision declared there should be a separate bargaining unit and collective agreement at OEM. The IAMAW applied to the Court to overturn that Remedy Decision. “The IAMAW believes that the Finning employees at OEM should be in the same bargaining unit, protected by the same collective agreement, as the other unionized Finning employees,” explained John Carpenter, legal counsel for IAMAW Local Lodge 99. “As a result of the Court of Appeal Judgment October 17th, that Remedy Decision will have to be resolved.”

“We have been pressing on to obtain justice for IAMAW members,” said Carpenter.

“We had been set back by the Reconsideration Panel and then by the Lower Court. But now the protections contained in the Code have been upheld and fortified by the Court of Appeal.” “This is an important day not only for us, the Machinists, but also for all unionized workers,” said MacKinnon. “It’s also a great day for the democratic process:  the Court of Appeal Judgment recognizes that where workers have voted to be represented by a union, that decision must be respected by employers.”

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For further information:
Bob MacKinnon – Directing Business Representative IAMAW Local Lodge 99
780-483-4103/780-991-7796

Bill Trbovich – IAMAW Director of Communications
416-386-1789 ext 31/416-735-9765