Last summer, I wrote an article covering what appeared to be unionbusting tactics employed by the No Frills in Chestermere.
The employer—which is also known as Seun & Alexandra’s NO FRILLS Chestermere and 16003109 Canada Inc.—was accused by Local 401 of the United Food and Commercial Workers of communicating anti-union messaging, hiring anti-union workers, and reduced hours for at least one of the workers.
Well, it looks as though they are back at it.
According to this week’s new applications report from the Alberta Labour Relations Board, Local 401 has submitted another application to the ALRB accusing them of unionbusting.
Now, as I said last summer, the application does not use the term “unionbusting”. That is a term I am using to describe No Frill’s actions.
Local 401 submitted their application to the ALRB last week, on the 2nd. In it, they accuse the Chestermere No Frills of denying “work shifts and leave of absence requests” from Kaylee Grier, one of their workers and a co-applicant on this case. This apparently led to her resignation.
The application summary provided by the ALRB also said that these denials created “an anti-union environment in the workplace and interfered with the representation of employees by a trade union”.
Seun Dare, who was named as a respondent in the application and is a franchise owner, has been accused of denying Grier’s shifts and leave of absence requests as retaliation for Grier’s pro-union actions, such as the following:
- Applying for membership in a trade union
- Signing a petition card
- Testifying in last year’s unionbusting case, which has still not been resolved
- Participating in filing that unionbusting complaint
- Trying to organize her fellow workers
The union and Grier also allege in their application that the above actions of the No Frills “was a means to intimidate and threaten other workers as a means to compel them to refrain
from becoming a member of a trade union”.
Naturally, the application proposed that these actions violated several sections of Alberta’s Labour Relations Code.
No employer or employers’ organization and no person acting on behalf of an employer or employers’ organization shall participate in or interfere with the representation of employees by a trade union,
Labour Relations Code 148.1.a.ii
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 an application or filed a complaint 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.vi, and 149.1.a.viii,
No employer or employers’ organization and no person acting on behalf of an employer or employers’ organization shall impose any condition in a contract of employment that restrains, or has the effect of restraining, an employee from exercising any right conferred on the employee by this Act; or seek by intimidation, dismissal, threat of dismissal or any other kind of threat, by the imposition of a pecuniary or other penalty or by any other means, to compel an employee to refrain from becoming or to cease to be a member, officer or representative of a trade union;
Labour Relations Code 149.1.b and 149.1.c
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, or has made an application or filed a complaint under this Act.
Labour Relations Code 149.1.g.1 and 149.1.g.iii
Lee Klippenstein and Kelly Nychka of the Edmonton-based Chivers Carpenter Lawyers are representing both Local 401 and Kaylee Grier.
The ALRB has scheduled three hearing dates next month to hear more about the unionbusting tactics of the Chesterfere No Frills, the first of which will be 16 March.
Because the ALRB does not archive their new applications reports, I have included a copy of this week’s report below.
