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Union busting at the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Commission
'The employer repeatedly used interference, coercion and intimidation to combat the expressed interest of its employees'.
Toronto - The Ontario Lottery and Gaming Commission, an agency of the Ontario government, behaved as reprehensibly as Wal-Mart in crushing a bid by its employees to unionize, says the Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU/NUPGE).
"For OPSEU, our Wal-Mart is the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Commission," union spokesman Terry Downey said Tuesday in a submission to the standing committee on social policy at the Ontario Legislature. The committee is studying Bill 144, a series of amendments to the Ontario Labour Relations Act.
"Recently, at the Woodbine race track operated by the commission, a clear majority of employees, well over 60%, signed cards to join OPSEU and to gain the right to bargain collectively", Downey said.
"These workers speak at least seven languages. They include many visible minorities. In the absence of card certification under the act, a vote was arranged", she told MPPs.
"For the next five days the employer repeatedly used interference, coercion and intimidation to combat the expressed interest of its employees. The employer's campaign was very aggressive and, sadly, it was successful".
'Illegal employer schemes',
Downey said the actions of the commission drove the vote down to 30%, tactics that are all too familiar in both the public and private sector in Ontario.
"Illegal employer schemes - to subvert union organizing efforts and reverse the stated interest of their staff are a regular occurrence", she said.
"Instead of rewarding the covert union-busting tactics of the Wal-Marts of this world, it's time that you stood with equity seeking communities in Ontario", Downey told MPPs.
"It's only fair that you permit amendments to Bill 144 to extend card certification to all workplaces that were covered before the Conservatives imposed changes to the Act in 1998".
Source: BonusGambler.com Editors' Choice
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