The BC Labour Relations Board has ruled that it was not an unfair labour practice for an employer to drive employees to a union strike vote meeting at their request and wait outside in a car. In ETD Building Maintenance Ltd., BCLRB No. B134/2002, the Board held that while there may be circumstances where an employer’s coercion or intimidation in the context of a strike vote could reasonably have the effect of compelling or inducing employees to cease being members of a union, the employer’s actions in this case could not reasonably have had that effect. Likewise, the Panel found there was no breach of Section 6(1). An employer’s involvement with a strike vote may constitute interference with the administration of a union. However, a strike vote involves the collective bargaining process and is not purely an internal union administration matter that an employer is prohibited from having any involvement in. The employer’s actions in this case were close to the line. However, it was not likely the employer intimidated employees or tainted employee wishes by agreeing to their requests for a ride to the meeting or by parking across the street in an unrecognizable vehicle.
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