CUPE files unfair labour practice, cites "surface bargaining" as cause of strike at Canadian Hearing Services
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TORONTO — In the normal course of bargaining, employers and unions exchange proposals and negotiate earnestly over weeks or months to find a middle ground. That is not what happened in the brief negotiations between Canadian Hearing Services (CHS) and CUPE 2073 – which broke down on April 28, resulting in what is now a four-week long strike.
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In a submission to the Ontario Labour Relations Board (OLRB) last week, lawyers for CUPE 2073 – the union representing 206 workers at CHS – contend that the agency violated six sections of the Labour Relations Act, 1995; this includes, among other things, bargaining by ultimatum, interfering with the union's ability to represent its members, and going through the legally mandated motions without any genuine intention of reaching a fair collective agreement.
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'They were only willing to bargain for two hours before filing for conciliation. Then they called for a No Board after four more hours and changed the terms of our contract the first day they could. That's not real bargaining, that's playing the system to push workers into a strike,' said Mara Waern, President of CUPE 2073 and an employment consultant with more than 30 years' experience at CHS.
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The submission further argues that CHS' actions are not isolated incidents but form a calculated course of conduct aimed at breaking the union and allowing the agency to operate more like a business, and less like a community agency. CHS left workers on strike for more than 10 weeks in 2017 and they are showing the same lack of urgency to resolve the current labour disruption, having refused CUPE 2073's request to bring in a third-party mediator to help move things forward.
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'Every worker wants to return to our jobs under a fair and equitable collective agreement that meets our needs and invests in services for Deaf, deafblind, and hard of hearing Ontarians,' said Waern. 'An unfair labour practice is a legal tool, but this is not an abstract legal concern. Each day that we are left on strike, people who rely on us to fully participate in society are being abandoned. That means missed surgeries, bank appointments, and funerals. There are real world consequences to CHS' uncaring behaviour.'
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As it stands, there is no offer on the table for workers to consider, and CHS has made no movement to bring new proposals forward.
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'This is part of a troubling trend, and it started at the top with Doug Ford steamrolling education workers with Bill 28. It's kept on going with the bosses at the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board just this month pulling the rug out from under workers, by terminating their collective agreement only days after they received their bargaining mandate from the province,' said Fred Hahn, President of CUPE Ontario. 'More and more employers are trying to undermine fair collective bargaining. But workers are pushing back, asserting our rights to have a say in our future while demanding the investments our communities deserve.'
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CUPE's submission to the OLRB asks for an order indicating that CHS has not bargained in good faith – directing CHS to meet with CUPE 2073's bargaining committee for five full days of bargaining to resolve the strike, and compensate members for losses, damages, and expenses incurred as a result of CHS' unlawful conduct that prolonged the strike.
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