A bitter labour relations battle between Northern Health and one of its unions has boiled over in Prince Rupert and shows no signs of cooling down.
The International Union of Operating Engineers Local 882 (IUOE) is battling the health authority after five union members lost their jobs as a result of a 2011 decision to shut down a steam boiler at the Prince Rupert hospital and replace it with an electrical system. The union contends the decision was made in part to get rid of specific employees who had been filing grievances against the employer and they want the employees reinstated.
"It became a personal issue in that hospital and that's crap," IUOE Local 882 business manager Saundra Taylor said in a phone interview.
Northern Health declined to comment on the specifics of the case, but in its filing before the B.C. Labour Relations Board, the agency said the decision was based solely on the business case presented for the 42-year-old boiler unit.
Labour board vice-chair Ritu Mahil ruled in favour of the union on Oct. 31, writing "the employer was motivated, at least in part, by anti-union animus in designing the technological change to the boiler system of the hospital."
Mahil said the board would consider possible remedies at a future date. The two sides have opened discussions about ways the situation could be resolved, according to Taylor, but she's concerned that Northern Health asked on Friday for more time to decide if it will appeal.
"When does it end?" Taylor said of the costly legal battle. "At the end of the day my statement to them is you're going to have to answer to the taxpayer and if I were a taxpayer, I'd be choked."
A spokeswoman from Northern Health said the organization is still reviewing the ruling and has yet to make a decision on whether or not to appeal.
Taylor said the evidence that Northern Health conspired to close the plant to get rid of certain employees is overwhelming and she expects the ruling to stand up if it's appealed.
"It's done now, you've lost, move on," she said.
The 19-page decision paints a picture of a labour-management situation which had deteriorated to the point where neither side trusted one another. The union filed 33 grievances in an 18-month period, many of which were outstanding at the time Northern Health made the decision to decommission the steam boiler.
The health authority wouldn't comment publicly on the contents of the ruling, but in the decision Mahil cites a Northern Health internal backgrounder which said the relationship between the two sides was "broken."
The ruling also shows early drafts of the business case prepared by Northern Health as well as an internal issues note both mentioned the labour relations issues as part of the decision-making process, however they were excluded from the final business case presented to chief operating officer Marina Ellinson.
Mahil determined managers at Northern Health worked to "cleanse the formal documents of any anti-union sentiments and to approve the initiative so that it appeared only to be a pure technological change, and that labour relations implications were a mere consequence."
The IUOE is also upset that the new positions created when the electrical system was installed went under the umbrella of the Hospital Employees' Union. Taylor said her union has done those functions at the hospital since 1949.
If the IUOE workers were to return, it could impact the job status of some new HEU workers. Taylor said those new hires wouldn't have had jobs if her union's members hadn't been unfairly treated.
"I'll fight like heck for my members," Taylor said. "I don't care if I've got five members or 500, they all deserve the same representation."
IUOE Local 882 represents about 1,500 workers in B.C., but has a relatively small presence in Northern Health. Aside from the five members in Prince Rupert, there are also five members in Kitimat. The union also used to represent some Northern Health workers in Terrace, but those employees joined a different union.
The IUOE and Northern Health are engaged in another legal battle over the fate of one particular employee, who was fired in Jan. 2011. Northern Health said in the termination letter that Lance Albert "deliberately falsified a financial recording document" while filing for overtime, failed to notify staff about a potential safety issue and "engaged in a deliberate campaign of impugning the reputation of management at the hospital."
Arbitrator Christopher Sullivan ruled on Aug. 30 that many of the grounds for dismissal Northern Health used were unacceptable and that Albert should be reinstated with a five-day suspension as punishment. Northern Health is appealing that decision. The appeal process has yet to begin.
