UNITE HERE fails in effort to block workers' votes from being counted; Ontario
Labour Relations Board confirms 90 % of workers at seven diverse workplaces
chose Workers United over UNITE HERE in Board Elections
TORONTO, Nov. 12 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Ontario Labour Relations Board
today confirmed that 90 percent of workers at seven workplaces across Ontario
voted to be represented by the Workers United Ontario Council instead of UNITE
HERE. Votes were unanimous for Workers United over UNITE HERE at two Compass
foodservice workplaces, at the Comfort Inn Hotel in Niagara Falls and Lonix
Hats.
Votes, representing almost 1000 workers, have been taking place since
September of this year but the counting of ballots was delayed after UNITE
HERE filed motions to prevent workers' votes from being counted.
"I don't know how many times and in how many ways we have to tell UNITE HERE
we don't want to be part of their union," said Joe Barbisan, a Xerox worker
and President of Workers United Local 1414B, a local of the Ontario Council.
"Our local and our Council voted in March to leave, we signed petitions and
still they tried to raid us, harassing our members and telling our employer
not to recognize the union. Then, when we signed cards and voted in an Ontario
Labour Relations Board election, they tried every legal trick in the book to
prevent our ballots from being counted. Our votes have been counted and our
choice for our union is Workers United. We won."
Barbisan's Xerox workplace, which voted on September 3rd, was the first in a
string of workplaces represented by Workers United that began signing union
cards and filing for OLRB elections after UNITE HERE refused to recognize
their democratic choice. The Workers United Ontario Council voted to end their
affiliation with UNITE HERE in March 2009, signing an agreement with UNITE
HERE to split the union in Ontario. In a direct violation of that agreement,
UNITE HERE began a raid against Workers United, trying to take the union's
bargaining rights from the members who voted to leave.
"It is pathetic that UNITE HERE has wasted the hard earned dues of union
members fighting to strip other union members of their chosen union
representation," said Alex Dagg, Director of the Workers United Ontario
Council. "Today's vote results should tell them to drop these ridiculous
raids, recognize the democratic choice of our members and let both unions get
back to the important job of representing workers in these difficult economic
times."
Votes were counted today for seven separate workplaces from a diverse group of
industries including two Xerox locations, two Compass food service workplaces,
apparel manufacturer Lonix Hats, plastics manufacturer Amhil Enterprises and
the Comfort Inn Hotel in Niagara Falls. Ballots are scheduled to be counted
for Toronto apparel workers at Bernard Athletics and T. Lipson tomorrow.
Workers United, an affiliate of SEIU, is a union of 150,000 workers in Canada
and the US who work in the laundry, food service, hospitality, gaming,
apparel, textile, manufacturing and distribution industries and includes
members from predecessor unions like the ILGWU, ACTWU, UNITE and UNITE HERE.
SOURCE Workers United
Wynne Hartviksen of Workers United, +1-416-473-2632
