Employee frustration is rising at the North Bay Mattawa Conservation Authority as they try to unionize.
A vote was taken Sept.13, and International Association of Machinists spokesman Scott Jackson tells BayToday that management is holding up the results by claiming that a number of the employees who voted are managers, and those votes should be invalid.
"They're contending that a significant portion of the people who voted are managers. So they're not willing to count those ballots.
"The employees see this as an attempt to frustrate their legal rights to form a union," says Jackson. "It is also seen as an unnecessary expenditure of the Authority's monies. Instead of throwing the money to lawyers, these are resources that might better be spent on improving labour relations."
After the Labour Board conducted the vote, management challenged its validity and so some ballots have not been counted. Until the Labour Board decides on a significant portion of the people who voted, their ballots won't be opened until it's determined whether they're employees or managers.
The issue is scheduled to go to a hearing at the Ontario Labour Relations Board in March 2024.
Jackson says a previously happy workforce turned to unionization because of poor management practices.
"It's the atmosphere at the organization that just changed over the last little while. The employees don't feel that they have real input into what's going on there anymore. Management is taking actions that they used to involve the employees in, and now they're just doing it unilaterally. A lot of these employees have been there a long, long time and just feel that they should continue to be involved in making some of those decisions."
Eighteen employees are involved in the effort to unionize.
Jackson says a lot of employee dissatisfaction comes from the length of time the employer challenge is taking.
"It's gonna be months, right? I mean, it's been what, for four months already. We haven't got a date scheduled till March. If we have to go through all the employees, I think we'll probably still be talking about it this time next year," exclaimed Jackson.
"They feel that the employer is just dragging their feet on this, and you know there really isn't any merit to what the employer is saying...that these employees are managers...they're certainly not."
Jackson says he has a sense that the employees voted in favour of unionizing.
BayToday reached out to CAO Chithra Gowda for comment by phone and email but received no response.
