The Canada Industrial Relations Board has dismissed allegations of bad faith bargaining leveled at the International Longshore and Warehouse Union Canada by the BC Maritime Employers Association.
In a decision released on Friday, the CIRB dismissed completely the allegations made by the BCMEA that the Union has been bargaining in bad faith or failed to make every reasonable effort to reach a collective agreement.
Indeed, the Board laid the blame for the failure to reach an agreement squarely at the feet of the BCMEA.
The Board made it abundantly clear that the BCMEA’s agenda for legislative change to curtail the free collective bargaining rights of ILWU members has “overshadowed” and “infected” the negotiations.
The CIRB decision also noted that the Union’s negotiating position could only be characterized as fighting hard to protect the interests of ILWU members.
Thankfully, given the BCMEA’s agenda to frustrate the negotiations, the Board also found that there is nothing illegal or unlawful for the ILWU to seek to bargain with individual members of the BCMEA who directly employ ILWU members. The Board made it clear that industry-wide bargaining is optional, not mandatory.
“We think the Board got it right, just as Special Mediators Hughes and Rooney did in their report in July last year. The CIRB has cleared the air and created the right climate for us to move forward now and reach an agreement,” said ILWU Canada President Tom Dufresne.
As a result of this decision, the Board has no mandate or jurisdiction to impose a new collective agreement or to impose binding arbitration.
The ILWU Canada and ILWU Local 514 have been trying to reach an agreement for the past 12 months with the BCMEA to renew longshore contracts that expired in March 2010 throughout the Pacific Gateway.
For more information: Read the CIRB decision here