Back in February, I wrote an article about Calgary workers employed by a local coffee shop chain trying to unionize.
Local 401 of the United Food and Commercial Workers filed the application back in January on behalf of around 30 workers employed by Caffe Rosso Inc.
The Calgary-based company, also known as Rosso Coffee Roasters, owns 5 cafe locations in Calgary.
There have been some delays in approving the application.
One of those delays was an application from Local 401 later in February accusing the company of holding holding one-on-one meetings with some of their workers.
One-on-one meetings are a common unionbusting tactic used by employers to discourage unionization. It undermines worker solidarity because the workers meet individually with the employer and they do not know what is said in the meetings with their fellow workers.
Well, Local 401 has filed another application with the Alberta Labour Relations Board accusing the Caffe Rosso of unionbusting.
To be fair, they never used the term unionbusting, but it sure does sound like unionbusting.
According to the new applications report that the ALRB published last week, Local 401 claims that Caffe Rosso reduced the hours of a worker specifically because of her support for unionization. As well, they are confident that the reduced hours were in connection with this worker’s plans to participate in an unfair labour practice complaint filed earlier against the employer.
Plus, apparently, they changed the work schedule without telling this worker and then gave her a warning for showing up to their new shift “late”.
Local 401 has claimed that these actions violare several sections of Alberta’s Labour Relations Code.
If a trade union has applied for certification, no employer affected by the application shall, except in accordance with an established custom or practice of the employer or with the consent of the trade union or in accordance with a collective agreement in effect with respect to the employees in the unit affected by the application, alter the rates of pay, any term or condition of employment or any right or privilege of any of those employees during the time between the date of the application and the date of its refusal, or 30 days after the date of certification.
Labour Relations Code, 147.1
No employer or employers’ organization and no person acting on behalf of an employer or employers’ organization shall refuse to employ or to continue to employ any person or discriminate against any person in regard to employment or any term or condition of employment because the person is a member of a trade union or an applicant for membership in a trade union, has indicated in writing the person’s selection of a trade union to be the bargaining agent on the person’s behalf, has testified or otherwise participated in or may testify or otherwise participate in a proceeding under this Act, has made or is about to make a disclosure that the person may be required to make in a proceeding under this Act, or has exercised any right under this Act
Labour Relations Code, 149.1.a.i, 149.1.a.ii, 149.1.a.iv, 149.1.a.v, & 149.1.a.viii
No employer or employers’ organization and no person acting on behalf of an employer or employers’ organization shall discriminate against a person in regard to employment or membership in a trade union or intimidate or threaten to dismiss or in any other manner coerce a person or impose a pecuniary or other penalty on a person, because the person has testified or otherwise participated in or may testify or otherwise participate in a proceeding authorized or permitted under a collective agreement or a proceeding under this Act, has made or is about to make a disclosure that the person may be required to make in a proceeding authorized or permitted under a collective agreement or a proceeding under this Act, or has made an application or filed a complaint under this Act.
Labour Relations Code, 149.1.g.i, 149.1.g.ii, & 149.1.g.iii
Because the ALRB does not archive their new application reports, I have included a copy of this week’s report below for your convenience.
