Members for Democracy Archive

Disclaimer: In deference to a threat of legal action made to MfD by the Brewery Workers' Union's legal representative Anthony Glavin, a number of edits have been made to the original content of this post. Follow the links to view the Union's threat, and read my personal response to Mr. Glavin's allegations of defamation.

I'm posting the following open letter as requested by my friend and union brother, Dick Findlay. I have applied minimal editing to Mr. Findlay's original text.

OPEN LETTER TO THE TRADE UNION MOVEMENT, MY FELLOW WORKERS, DISABLED PEOPLE AND ADVOCATES FOR JUSTICE

I am asking for your support for my long and difficult struggle for justice under the labour law, and redress from Molson Breweries and my union, the Brewery Workers' Union, Local 300.

Terminated while Disabled
In 1988 I was a 19 year employee of Molson's unjustly fired while on sick leave. I grieved the dismissal and the Union took it to arbitration -only to adjourn the hearing, never allowing it to reconvene.

At a recent Local 300 union meeting (which I was barred from entering) the Union's current president Roy Graham claimed the Union possessed documentation concerning my removal from the Union, yet the Union has failed to produce it when requested to do so as required by the Personal Information Protection Act (PIPA). As a result, edited.

Under Local 300's Constitution and Bylaws, a worker who is on sick leave maintains his or her union membership until recovered. Nonetheless, the Union claims I am no longer a member, despite never having taken any steps to have me removed from the Union.

Violence, Intimidation and Corruption
The background to my case is disturbing. There was an edited Vancouver brewery in the late 1980's, a matter I unsuccessfully attempted to raise at the Labour Relations Board in the early 1990's. I was ruled "out of time" by the Board.

I was essentially fired from Molson's because of edited. During a plant election a member of the Union's Executive Board said he would have me fired, simply to prove he could do it -this was after I had told him I would not be voting for him in an upcoming plant election.

The fact that my disability has since been confirmed and upheld by a Canada Pension Plan Review Tribunal should have laid the basis for the reopening of my case with Molson. And in 2002, Local 300's (then) president Gerry Bergunder wrote to Molson seeking to do just that. However, a number of other Union Executive members were later successful in exerting sufficient pressure on Mr. Bergunder to influence him to drop my case.

PIPA
Under the newly enacted Personal Information Protection Act, the Union must provide me with documentation when I request it. With respect to the suspension of my union membership the Union has failed to do so. I suggest this is because no such documentation exists.
If this should prove to be the case, then my membership in Local 300 ought to be reinstated IMMEDIATELY and appropriate steps taken to reopen my case.

Thus, I am asking all concerned trade unionists, disability rights activists and other advocates for justice to contact Molson Breweries and/or Local 300 and its affiliate the BCGEU, to demand answers to my allegations of impropriety, restoration of my union rights and the reopening of my case.

AN INJURY TO ONE IS AN INJURY TO ALL!! SUPPORT MY STRUGGLE FOR THE RESTORATION OF MY UNION RIGHTS!

For further information contact me, Richard Findlay, at rchrdfindlay@yahoo.ca

And for more on Dick Findlay be sure to check out Molson's Suckerpunch: the Dick Findlay Story in the General Mayhem forum.