- May 26, 2021
- Certifications/Decertifications
IATSE had filed an application for certification to the employer in order to represent “All employees as per the Labour Code, with the exception of managers working in the Habs Zone Team Store”. The request was filed in open field and proceedings before the LRB touched only on the description of the bargaining unit.
The employer agreed that the bargaining unit should also include employees working in the warehouse, in the Bell Centre’s Hall of Fame as well as those working in the souvenir store in the sports centre in Brossard. According to the employer, by excluding employees, the unit was rendered inappropriate because it did not consider work organization nor the community of interests of the group as a whole.
The LRB states that a distinct group will be deemed appropriate once it can establish useful collective work reports with the employer. The commission is not required to specify whether another unit would be as or more appropriate than that requested by the union, but is only required to decide whether the requested unit is in itself appropriate.
In the case in point, the novelty stores are autonomous and staff mobility is reduced. Transfers are punctual and occasional. The two novelty stores are geographically separate and employees’ stability in each sector makes for a cohesive work environment. The Hall of Fame is located on a different floor and has its own operational logic. Roles are not interchangeable. In relation to the warehouse, staff mobility is very limited. There is no community of interests between employees of the warehouse and those of the novelty stores.
Even though it is possible for multiple collective agreements to coexist, it is not enough, according to the LRB, to bypass the assessment criteria. In sum, the unity that the union is requesting is appropriate by reason of the community of interests of the employees of the novelty store, of the history of accreditations marked by a multitude of unities on the part of this employer, of the lack of threats to industrial peace and finally of the volition of the employees of a novelty store that could be considered a store.
Accreditation granted.