B.C.’s labour board handed CUPE 4500 a symbolic victory on Wednesday but declined to award damages after the union argued Coast Mountain Bus Company had breached labour laws during a two-day strike last week.
In its application, the union had argued CMBC had unfairly tried to minimize the impact of the transit strike on Jan. 22 and 23 by redeploying staff to ensure transit operations such as the SkyTrain continued as much as possible. Section 68 of B.C.’s Labour Relations Code restricts the use of replacement workers to perform duties held by members on strike.
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In the decision posted Wednesday, LRB vice-chair Rene-John Nicolas agreed with the union that CMBC had breached labour laws but said CMBC’s actions were minimal and did not harm the impact of CUPE 4500’s strike in the grand scheme.
“I find the Employer’s conduct to be … understandable in the circumstances,” wrote Nicolas, adding that the employer appeared to have done whatever it could to avoid breaching Section 68.
“That is particularly so given the large and complex transit operations of the Employer, the novelty of the particular strike action undertaken by the Union, which is unprecedented in the history of the collective bargaining relationship between the parties, and the nature of the Union’s bargaining unit being a supervisory unit, as opposed to a front line employee bargaining unit.”
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