Canadian Labour Reporter

7 Canadian HR Reporter, a Thomson Reuters business 2016 CANADIAN LABOUR REPORTER NEWS < Labour pg. 1 "That was part of our goodwill attempt to address the company's financial issues. It's not like they're hemorrhaging money but they want to be making money, moving forward — we said, 'OK, it's a busi- ness,'" O'Hanlon said. When an agreement still could not be reached, employees walked off the job. At the next round of bargaining, the union offered more concessions, including moving editorial jobs around that would "save them a million dol- lars," he said, but talks broke down the night of Jan. 25 and, as of press time, there were no negotiations scheduled for the future. The union said the company wanted to move certain editorial employees, including senior de- sign staff, to a non-unionized facil- ity, where some would have to take a $10,000 pay cut. "We've done all the compromis- ing so far — that's not bargaining — bargaining has to be both sides trying to find an agreement. One side just saying, 'Give us every- thing we want' and we're not going to get a deal," he said. Further complicating the matter is that in the hours following the employees' strike, 18 bargaining unit workers were issued layoff notices, which the company then suspended, Nancy Cook, a spokesperson for the Chronicle Herald, confirmed in an email. "The result of a work stoppage, in this case a strike, suspends vari- ous aspects of the employment relationship, including the layoff notices," she said. Among the 18 employees was Ingrid Bulmer, president of the HTU union and photographer. O'Hanlon added that the union would not hesitate to consider pursuing legal action for anything that may have happened during the labour lockout that should have been hammered out at the bargaining table. "Regardless, all of that stuff is irrelevant, it gets settled at the bargaining table; what doesn't get settled, well, we'll take legal ac- tion," he said. Grounds for labour board complaint One route the union could take is to file an unfair labour complaint with the province's labour rela- tions board. The onus would then be on the union to show that the publisher's managers did not bargain in good faith — a situation that is some- times difficult to prove, said Jon- quille Pak, a labour and employ- ment lawyer at Whitten & Lublin in Toronto. "An employer is entitled to hard bargaining, and when it becomes an unlawful issue is whether the employer is engaging in tactics in what is called surface bargaining — going through the motions but tabling proposals with no inten- tion of reaching a collective agree- ment with the union because you know it will never accept them," Pak said. But because those layoffs were discussed during bargaining, and because the employer operates in a beleaguered industry, proving that the layoffs that were issued and then suspended may not exactly have been so-called union-bust- ing, as the HTU has said. "The act of a layoff is not nec- essarily union-busting," Pak said. "It depends on whether it was de- signed to undermine the union in the situation. "It's highly possible that it was and that's going to depend on the context of what took place during the negotiations." She added that while the com- pany is certainly engaging in "hard bargaining," it would need to prove its actions do address a financial necessity. "There's no way to insulate or protect employees in an industry that's generally suffering from a downturn, from change — regard- less of the fact that employees be- long to a union or not," Pak said. "However, there is an obligation on the employer and the union to negotiate in good faith," she added. Long-term repercussions for labour relations Though O'Hanlon said he re- mains positive that both sides will come to an agreement at some point, there could be long-term repercussions for the future of labour relations at the Chronicle Herald — where the relationship was not so rosy to begin with, he said. "Of course, they haven't just damaged their labour relations — they've blown up their labour rela- tions," said O'Hanlon. "When you start off your labour dispute by issuing a layoff notice, you know it's inflammatory and against the collective agreement. But you know that's going to upset people. "They're treating their employ- ees like a commodity." O'Hanlon said the union un- derstands the financial pressures facing many traditional media outlets, but that there is a right way to tackle these issues with the union. "There's a nice way to do it. You don't have to demonize your em- ployees," he said. "So, yes, there is going to be a very negative effect on labour re- lations. They weren't the best to start with over there, and this will chill it further." Layoff notices issued to 18 workers, then suspended Photo: Fred Thornhill (Reuters) "When you start off your dispute by issuing a layoff notice, you know it's inflammatory and against the collective agreement." Employees strike outside the Chronicle Herald's offices in Halifax. The union said it cannot accept an agreement that diminishes wages and benefits, and cuts essential newsroom staff.

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