Courts give good and bad news to picketers

By Dan Hilborn
Published Aug. 14, 2004


A B.C. Supreme Court judge has tossed out an application to curtail picketing outside of Burnaby's largest recycling facility.

Operators of the Norampac paper mill, which has been behind pickets since April 10, made an application to the court that would have prevented the strikers from delaying the passage of trucks onto and off the site.

Dave Hart, president of the Communication Energy and Paperworkers (CEP), local 1129, said the decision, handed down last Friday, held a bit of both good news and bad news for the striking workers.

"It's a victory in that the company tried to take some of our rights away and the courts denied that," Hart said. "But at the same time, the court was quite vocal in telling the union what they expect of our conduct on the picket line."

In its court application, the company claimed that some of the 103 striking workers had been interfering with company business contacts, intimidating visitors to the site and trespassing onto company property.

In making its decision to dismiss the application, the court ruled that the company could deal with the alleged breaches of the law through other criminal and civil avenues.

The workers have been without a contract since May, 2003. The union claims that 22 paper mills around B.C. have already settled their contracts on basically the same framework as that sought at the Burnaby facility.

Talks broke down when Norampac, which is headquartered in Quebec, attempted to gain concessions on the health and welfare package, contracting out and a job evaluation program.