February 20, 2008 at 12:00 AM
Last Thursday, February 14th, the GTAA
distributed a memo to its employees purporting to restrict GTAA employees from a
wide set of activities. Unfortunately, the sweeping statements and blanket
prohibitions as laid out in their memo are so overly-broad that legitimate union
activity may be restricted.
In response, the CAW sent a letter from our legal
department to the GTAA, copied to the Public Service Alliance of Canada, in
which we state our position as simply that "the Company does not have the
authority to institute a complete ban on union activity in the workplace." While
we agree that there is to be no solicitation of workers while they are working,
the CIRB has determined that the "working hours' prohibition does not apply to
periods of time when an employee is on company property before shift, during
breaks and lunches, and after shift. We respectfully stated that it was not the
GTAA that determined which activities CAW (or PSAC) may legitimately engage in,
but that that was the job of the CIRB.
"The CAW does not accept that the GTAA has any
authority to curtail the exercise of legitimate and lawful activity of a union,
or its members, as recognized by the Canada Labour Code."
For the complete letter, please click here.