The employer, the Vancouver branch of a North American trucking company, justified the dispatch of hauling work to U.S. based drivers employed by its Tacoma, Washington branch on the basis that the assignment was an internal transfer of work between related corporate entities. The union grieved, arguing that the assignment was contracting out in violation of the collective agreement because the employer did not directly control the U.S. based drivers.
The grievance was dismissed. The arbitrator acknowledged that the two entities were separate corporations by law, but concluded that they were highly integrated operations which were run as a single unified business. The assignment was, therefore, a permissible transfer of work within the business rather than contracting out.
