The Canadian Industrial Relations Board has appointed an officer to resolve the matter. The officer is to report back no later than April 1.
The Canada Industrial Relations Board has decided that a Kanata employer whose workers were on strike for nearly 10 months failed to bargain in good faith.
The decision dated Feb. 28 was in response to a complaint filed last June by Unifor, the union representing the manufacturing workers at Best Theratronics Ltd.’s Kanata facility, which manufactures equipment used in cancer treatment.
At issue, according to Unifor’s complaint, was Best Theratronics’ failure to bargain, along with communications sent to workers by the company owner.
The CIRB decision was released only days after Unifor members ratified an agreement following almost 10 months on the picket line and after the union had publicly pleaded for federal officials to investigate its complaints about the bargaining process.
In an email on May 18, 2024, Best Theratronics owner Krishnan Suthanthiran rebuked the striking workers, saying recent challenges at the facility were “unfortunate, but predictable Canadian way of Life,” (sic).
Suthanthiran also suggested he planned to expand his manufacturing operations in India, Europe and the United States.
The CIRB concluded that Best Theratronics “disseminated misinformation as a means of threatening, intimidating and coercing unionized workers so that they would not continue their affiliation with the complainant (Unifor) and exercise their collective bargaining rights.”
The CIRB has appointed an industrial relations officer to resolve the matter. The officer is to report back no later than April 1.
Evening Update
In a statement, Unifor said it was reviewing the decision and would comment further early next week.
Suthanthiran did not respond to an email from the Ottawa Citizen asking for comment.
During the strike, Unifor leaders said Suthanthiran was attempting to “bust the union” and expressed frustration about getting the company owner, who is based in the United States, to provide a representative authorized to make bargaining decisions.
It appeared that the union and Best Theratronics representatives had come to an agreement in early February, but Suthanthiran asked for new conditions before agreeing to sign a contract, according to Unifor.
Because Best Theratronics is under federal jurisdiction, Unifor had appealed to federal Labour Minister Steve MacKinnon to intervene.
In an exchange with Conservative MP Kyle Seeback at a November meeting of the standing committee on human resources, MacKinnon said he met with Unifor and the Public Service Alliance of Canada, which represents 12 more striking Best Theratronics workers.
MacKinnon said he had made repeated attempts “to communicate with the company’s owner, who has proven elusive, not only to union representatives, but to us.”
It’s a “very aggravating situation when the federal labour minister calls upon an employer to discuss labour stoppage and the employer does not respond,” said MacKinnon, who added he had asked the department for options to deal with the situation.
Based on the evidence and testimony the CIRB had heard, Best Theratronics had failed to bargain in good faith, in beach of its duty under the Canada Labour Code, the decision said. In particular, the company has “failed to cause representatives to have authority to bargain on its behalf.”
The decision also found that the Best Theratronics disseminated “false and misleading communications clearly designed to influence the bargaining process.” Between April 1 and June 27, 2024, the owner of the company sent numerous messages to workers “implying possible changes to operations.”
According to the decision, the employer denied any violations of the code, arguing that it had actively participated in the bargaining process and that “an impasse was reached after what it characterizes as hard bargaining.”
According to evidence provided before the CIRB, Best Theratronics has had no plan to close its Kanata plant at any time relevant to Unifor’s complaint, the decision said.
