https://www.sootoday.com/local-news/essar-strike-talk-not-helpful-to-anyone-judge-says-da-prat-hopeful-for-favourable-decision-519119

Essar strike talk 'not helpful to anyone,' judge says. Da Prat hopeful for favourable decision

Essar Steel Algoma: File photo by Kenneth Armstrong/SooToday

In a Toronto courtroom yesterday, Essar Steel Algoma Inc. indicated it will not seek a no-board report.

At least, it won't seek a no-board report before a scheduled court hearing on Feb. 7 decides whether the company is allowed to do so under federal insolvency law.

What's a no-board report?

Why is it important?

Provincial labour law requires union and management to use the government's conciliation services before engaging in a strike or lockout.

At any time after an initial meeting with the conciliator, either union or management may request a no-board report, indicating that differences can't  be resolved and no conciliation board should be appointed.

A lockout or strike is legally possible on the seventeenth day after a no-board report is issued by the Ontario Ministry of Labour.

Essar Steel Algoma's largest union, United Steelworkers Local 2251, became very concerned earlier this month when the company served notice that it may seek a no-board report and unilaterally impose contract terms some time late next month.

Local president Mike Da Prat told a series of emergency closed union meetings last week that the terms to be imposed include a 10 per cent wage reduction, elimination of cost of living increases, reduction of paid vacation and other cuts.

"If the company requests a no-board report, we have to take a strike vote," Da Prat told SooToday on Friday.

That kind of talk isn't sitting well with Justice Frank Newbould, the Superior Court judge presiding over Essar Algoma's restructuring proceedings under the Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act.

"It is extremely unsettling to a restructuring process for union officials to be publicly discussing a possible strike," Newbould said yesterday.

"It is affecting the business of Algoma and that is not helpful to anyone, including the employees. I urge the parties to have meaningful negotiations of the issues surrounding a collective agreement and leave public discussion of the negotiations or threats of action out of it."

"The parties have agreed to toll the time until the motion is determined for an application for judicial review."

Outside the courtroom, Da Prat is now careful to avoid uttering the "s" word.

But he insists he has no choice but to communicate to his local's 2,100 members through news media like SooToday, because Essar Algoma is controlling access to in-plant bulletin boards and the corporate email system.

"The CEO has to approve anything on the intranet. Local 2251 has to use the media to communicate with its members in real time. We have no way of doing it any other way," Da Prat says. 

The union usually has two or three months to organize for a labour disruption.

If the company obtains a no-board report, Local 2251 could get hardly a month to do all the things necessary to prepare for a strike: organizing special membership meetings and committees, meetings with police regarding permits, meetings with city staff regarding property boundaries, notifying residents of traffic issues, locating strike trailers and other infrastructure.

"We have to figure out how we're going to sign 2,100 checks a week. We have set up all the mechanics. We need to do what we need to do to be ready."

"At Local 2251, our last strike was in 1990. We've always co-operated and worked with the company to restructure. We're prepared to do it again," Da Prat tells SooToday.

This afternoon, Da Prat advised us that information regarding the negotiations will also be shared on the Local 2251 website.

Da Prat says he's optimistic for a favourable court decision on Feb. 7.

Meanwhile, on Monday, Sault Ste. Marie City Council approved an additional $50,000 retainer for the lawyers representing the city at Essar Steel Algoma's insolvency proceedings.

Essar owes the city more than $21 million in unpaid property taxes.

The city's legal department originally asked for an additional $75,000 on top of the $225,000 already spent trying to collect the taxes owed, but the amount was reduced after Ward 6 councillor Ross Romano introduced the following motion:

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