This page was last
updated on: January
14, 2008

Never give up !

This page was created by Brother Tim Mitchinson, a member of IBEW LU 303 Niagara Region, Ont. Canada. It is dedicated to the IBEW Members whose sacrifices once secured our livelihood.  It appears our leaders today are willing to concede their hard won gains !

"Those who have long enjoyed such privileges as we enjoy, forget in time that men have died to win them." Franklin D. Roosevelt

"It is a sin to be silent when it is your duty to protest." Abraham Lincoln

"All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing." - Edmund Burke

Politicians are like diapers.  They both need changing regularly and for the same reason.

Everything you read in the Journal is not always as it professes to be.  If our leadership were as devoted to the rest of the IBEW objects as they are for organizing every John and Jane Doe, we wouldn't be losing our hard earned gains.  Check out the following addresses: http://www.courts.gov.bc.ca/jdb-txt/sc/00/03/s00-0380.htm http://www.courts.gov.bc.ca/jdb-txt/sc/02/06/2002bcsc0654.htm http://www.courts.gov.bc.ca/jdb-txt/sc/04/02/2004bcsc0251.htm for third link, paragraphs 127, 132, 142*, 158*, 162, 164, 203, 224, 233 and 235 to save you some reading.  Paragraphs marked with * indicate why we need OMOV before the next Convention!  The ballot can't decide what the delegates and membership don't know!  Sorry for the inconvenience of having to copy these URLs to your address bar but I think you'll find it worth your while.

Let them call me rebel and welcome, I feel no concern from it; but I should suffer the misery of devils, were I to make a whore of my soul..." - Thomas Paine

NEVER GIVE UP !

Click to join ourlocal303

Ontario Human Rights Commission

IBEW Local 303 Business Manager

Niagara Falls MPP

TALE OF THREE MONKEYS In 2002, the then Business Manager of Local 303, Garry Sorley, was enforcing this "unwritten" work rule:  "Members wishing to be placed on the Unemployed List after being on the sick or injured list must first provide the local union with a "fit to return to work certificate".  The membership was never made aware of this rule and I subsequently lost a job referral because of it.  I filed a complaint with the Ontario Labour Relations Board under "Duty of Fair Referral", but lost after the OLRB ruled I was not discriminated against because the unwritten rule was enforced on everyone equally.  As it turned out the Business Manager continued to discriminate against me in other ways and this allowed me to file the same complaint before the OHRC under "Duty to Accommodate", where it belonged in the first place.    In 2004, our newly elected Business Manager, Peter Wall, sent a letter to the OHRC advising them that Sorley's rule did not follow past practice; was unwritten; and that Sorley had enforced it on me for improper purposes.  Finally, and without explanation, the OHRC deemed my complaint, not Sorley's actions, to be frivolous and vexatious.  I suspect the main purpose was to protect the OLRB from having made a BULLSHIT decision in 2003.

After being re-elected to a second term in office, Peter Wall also adopted this rule, but he went a step further and amended our work rules by including, "Members wishing to be placed on the Unemployed List after being on the sick or injured list or off on a short or a long term disability must first provide the local union with written verification from their doctor that they are fit to return to work."   I sent a copy of this rule to an OHRC Senior Policy Analyst for an interpretation.  The Analyst replied, "Workers have the right to return to a job if they can perform the essential duties of the job with accommodation (up to the point of undue hardship).  This means that unions and employers cannot take the position that workers can only return to work once they are 100% fit to do so.  Rather, an employee has a right to return to work once he or she is able to perform the essential duties of a job, even if an accommodation is required to allow him or her to do so.  The requirement that you have described would appear not to consider this crucial element of the duty to accommodate.  Therefore, if a worker who is able to return to work but requires some accommodation to perform the essential duties of a job is not placed on a hiring list because of this requirement, the union may face a human rights complaint..To summarize, there is an obligation on a union to accommodate returning employees seeking redeployment and not just those already placed with an employer.  This means the use of individual assessment to determine when further medical information is required, limiting the request for medical information to assessing the worker's ability to perform the essential duties of the job and what accommodations may be required to do so, and then continuing to place workers with disabilities in jobs that they are capable of performing with accommodation."   I forwarded this interpretation to Peter Wall.  He then revoked his work rule.

It's obvious that in my case the OHRC refused to apply their own guidelines to see any wrong doing by the former Business Manager; therefore I consider the OHRC is the monkey who sees no evil.  Local 303's current Business Manager, Peter Wall, no longer supports me in this matter.  He now claims he has spoken with the Union's lawyer and was advised the case is un-winnable.  I believe he is simply towing the line for the International Office who are more concerned over a possible black eye for the IBEW than defending members' past and future Human Rights.  Obviously my case is winnable based on the OHRC Analyst's written reply.  Unfortunately, I must now consider IBEW Business Manager Peter Wall is the monkey who speaks no evil and also a hypocrite for jumping to the other side of the fence.  Finally, the monkey who hears no evil is my MPP, Kim Craitor (Liberal), Parliamentary Assistant to the Minister of Energy, who chooses not to hear me when I provide him with proof that the OHRC is corrupt.  He claims there is nothing he can do about the OHRC not following their legislative mandate!  So much for elected reprsentation. If you have also been a victim of IBEW discrimination, please feel free to contact me.  Rest assured, I will Never Give Up until the OHRC, or another Court, have reconsidered my complaint following procedures and guidelines consistent with the OHRC legislative mandate.