"Workers Caught Coca-Cola Breaking Labour Laws", 10 August 2023

Striking Coca-Cola workers in Metro Vancouver caught the company breaking labour laws in apparent effort to keep the soda flowing during a weeks-long shutdown.

The BC Labour Relations Board has twice ordered Coca-Cola Canada Bottling to stop using workers it paid to do the work of striking members of Teamsters Local 213 at its bottling plant in Richmond.

Union members say they caught the company through an impromptu surveillance operation they dubbed a “flying picket line,” which involved Teamsters covertly tailing company trucks and speaking with drivers and passengers.

They found the company has flown in employees from as far as Quebec.

Coke Canada spokesperson Kathy Murphy said in a written statement that the company was “deploying our contingency plan as permitted by British Columbia labour laws.”

But Teamsters Local 213 business agent Jim Loyst said the board found the company’s conduct was illegal...

“If the company would just follow the laws and respect them, the focus would be on getting back to the bargaining table.”

Teamsters Local 213 represents more than 400 Coca-Cola employees at the Richmond bottling site and at three distribution centres in the Lower Mainland, as well as another worksite on the Sunshine Coast.

Those workers have been on strike since July 13 after their collective agreement expired earlier this year.

Workers on the picket line say the dispute boils down to wages...

...its workers in the Lower Mainland say their wages have been eclipsed by runaway inflation. Walsh said many workers were hoping for more just to make ends meet in Metro Vancouver...

Workers had hoped picketing the plant would hurt the company enough to push them back to the bargaining table...

Loyst said workers on the picket line have seen massive charter buses with tinted windows arriving at the bottling plant each morning, dropping off what appear to be dozens of people at the plant.

“We can observe them wearing safety vests for work boots and some are wearing COVID masks or hoodies, which seem to hide their identities,” Loyst said.

In British Columbia, it is illegal for a company to hire someone to do the job of a striking worker, even if they work for the same employer at a different facility...

But there are exceptions. Managers who fall outside of a collective agreement, for example, are allowed to do the work of striking union members.

Loyst said his members recognized some of the people coming into the bottling facility as managers. But they couldn’t place the others. The company erected a fence around the bottling plant during the dispute, Loyst said, and retained a security company to monitor picketing workers. Loyst claimed those security workers also stood in front of the mysterious workers when they got on and off the buses, meaning union members couldn’t identify them...

Loyst said his members eventually identified multiple workers Coca-Cola had apparently brought in, including managers and workers from Prince George, Kelowna and Quebec.

The Teamsters brought a complaint to the BC Labour Relations Board, who issued a bottom-line decision on July 25 stating the company had violated the province’s labour laws and ordering them to stop.

Coca-Cola agreed to a second cease and desist on Aug. 1, Loyst said.

Coca-Cola has not faced any fines as a result of the violations, something Loyst believes highlights a flaw in the province’s labour laws...

Loyst said the company made two offers to the union during 22 days of bargaining, including a wage package that included a 10 per cent hike over three years. Some union members on the picket line said they were hoping for an increase as high as 15 per cent.

In her statement, Murphy said the union was asking for “a magnitude of increases that go beyond what is offered in the industry, across our business and that we simply cannot accept.”

Workers on the line, though, say they are just trying to keep up with the cost of living...