'Use of impermissible replacement workers' diminishes union's bargaining power
The British Columbia Labour Relations Board (LRB) has found that Radisson Blu Vancouver Airport Hotel illegally used replacement workers during a strike by a union last year.
The employer used impermissible replacement workers to perform bargaining unit housekeeping work and to perform the maintenance work listed in the Evergreen invoices dated on several days in October, November and December 2023.
“The parties’ labour dispute has been ongoing for more than three years. I find I am able to infer that the employer’s repeated use of impermissible replacement workers has diminished the union’s bargaining power and has the effect of prolonging the conflict,” says Carmen Hamilton, vice-chair of LRB, in the decision.
Workers represented by UNITE HERE Local 40 went on strike in May 2021 over management’s mass terminations of 143 workers and efforts to gut wages and working standards.
“At the time, the hotel was raking in millions in payments from the federal government for its use as a temporary quarantine site,” said the union.
Cease and desist order for Radisson hotel
Hamilton ordered Radisson Blu Vancouver Airport to cease and desists using replacement workers, and pay the union damages in the amount of the lost wages for the bargaining unit employees who would have otherwise performed the tasks assigned to replacement workers.
This is the fifth time the Board has issued an order against hotel management for violating the Labour Code, said the UNITE HERE Local 40. In May, the Board ruled against the employer and issued a cease-and-desist order to management to stop threatening and intimidating strikers on the picket line.
That followed three consent orders issued by the LRB last year declaring the hotel had violated labour law multiple times by using replacement workers during the protracted strike.
Canada’s anti-scab legislation – Bill C-58, An Act to amend the Canada Labour Code and the Industrial Relations Board Regulations, 2012 – received royal assent in June.
