Union accuses Corus of punishing newly unionized workers

BEATRICE BRITNEFF | iPolitics

[~] The union representing a new group of unionized employees at Corus Entertainment has filed a complaint with the federal labour board, alleging the media company has broken labour laws by scaling back employees’ benefits immediately after they voted in favour of unionizing — and before a new collective agreement could be negotiated.

In its March complaint to the Canada Industrial Relations Board, the Canadian Media Guild – a local of media union CWA Canada – alleges Corus penalized the group of 48 workers for voting in favour of unionizing “in an effort to turn employees against the union” and “intimidated individual employees for expressing their views on unionization.”

The Guild claims Corus — which provides specialty TV channels and owns Global News and nearly 40 radio stations in Canada — has engaged in “unfair labour practices,” including reducing employees’ vision care benefits, revoking the employees’ parking passes and terminating their ability to contribute to a group RRSP.

Sean FitzPatrick, legal counsel for the Guild, said the union had been negotiating with Corus until recently, when the two sides reached an impasse over wages and benefits. The union has now created a webpage to draw attention to the dispute.

“They just won’t respect that people have a right to choose to be represented by a union,” FitzPatrick said in an interview. “That seems to be what the senior management are not digesting well.”

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