July 25, 2006

Labour

Ongoing battle for Local 183

Fight not over, despite OLRB, trusteeship

IAN HARVEY

correspondent

TORONTO

A month after a dramatic Ontario Labour Relations Board Hearing turned over control of Universal Workers Union Local 183 to parent union trustees, pockets of resistance continue to battle for control.

The OLRB is now poised to hear more arguments and attempt to settle the dispute between the two sides Aug. 2 — and in doing so, resurrect the core issue of whether or not the controversial local can oust their nemesis, Canadian vice president and regional manager Joseph Mancinelli at the Laborers International Union of North America (LIUNA) convention in Las Vegas in September.

Three issues have emerged since former Local 183 president Tony Dionisio and his executive were turfed out by the June 12 OLRB decision. That decision upheld earlier investigations that the leadership had wrongly spent on surveillance, allowed signatures to be forged on collective agreements and were negligent in tracking how piecework was accounted for and paid.

Tony Dionisio

Last Thursday, lawyers again converged on the OLRB offices for a case management meeting; On one side was Brian Shell, who previously acted for Dionisio and is now acting for 48 of 91 nominated delegates.

Brian Shell

On the other side was another veteran labour litigator, Gary Caroline of Vancouver, acting for LUINA, and Rick Weiss, now installed as trustee of Local 183.

Shell is pressing the board to demand the leadership of the Local be turned back to the membership through a democratic vote as mandated by its decision which set 30 days for the trustees to file a plan for such a process.

Rick Weiss

He also wants the status of the delegates-in-waiting to be cleared up, setting the stage for the September showdown and the firings of employees deemed loyal to Dionisio by the trustees reviewed.

Caroline, on the other hand, says Weiss is formulating a plan for elections, but maintains “it is an internal union matter. We are not obliged to broadcast it to everyone.”

A letter to that effect was filed with the OLRB and cites upcoming collective agreement bargaining and the threat of raids by other unions on their membership as more reasons to keep things under wraps.

Both sides have filed documents pressing their case, though Caroline’s pleadings were apparently so secret that neither Shell nor any of the employer associations granted intervener status were given copies.

In his decision released Friday following more than two hours of arguments, vice chair Norm Jesin ordered copies of LIUNA’s “Trusteeship Plan” distributed to all involved parties, but demanded they be kept confidential.

He directed LIUNA to respond to Shell’s concerns as outlined in a July 17 letter to the OLRB around the issues of the delegates to the convention, election of a new local executive and the firings of employees since Weiss took over June 12. He has also called a hearing Aug 2 on the delegates issue.

While Dionisio was ostensibly removed by the June 12 ruling, his shadow still looms large over the proceedings. Shell is also representing the Local 183 Jurisdictional Committee, a body formed before the OLRB hearings consisting of Dionisio, and supporters John Dias and John Colacci.

Jesin’s ruling also recognized their right to a voice at the hearings was well as the delegates-in-waiting.

Dionisio and his loyalists have set up a headquarters under the banner Democracy for Local 183 at an old liquor store on Rogers Road where they continue to rally their cause.

Outside the closed meeting Thursday, Caroline also said the issue of the delegates is a separate issue “out of the trustees’ hands.”

He said the LIUNA elections officer in the U.S. is reviewing protests and appeals from all sides in the issue and will render a ruling when he is able.

The Hamilton-based Canadian executive under Mancinelli holds that the union’s constitution stipulates no delegates to a national convention can be appointed from a local under trusteeship.

If that is upheld, it would effectively wipe out the slate of delegates loyal to Dionosio and stifle any challenge to Mancinelli.

And that’s always been the crux of the matter, says Shell.

“It’s about the democratic rights of the membership,” he said. “And their right to be an active political force.”

Dionisio and his board have long argued they were being targeted for a takeover because they were rallying support to challenge the Hamilton executive at LIUNA’s convention in Las Vegas.

Since trustees Rick Weiss and Tim Armstrong took over June 13, there has been a code of silence over the offices. Inside the building, however, the action has been frantic as Dionisio loyalists were fired or demoted.

Tim Armstrong

There has been no comment publicly from either man despite repeated attempts by the Daily Commercial News to reach them.

The only communication has been a statement posted on Local 183’s website — redesigned to remove any references to the previous executive — announcing that an election slated for June 24 to formally elected the nominated delegates to the convention was cancelled until the LIUNA elections officer “decides on the merits of protests regarding the delegates election by members of Local 183 and LIUNA.”

According to Shell, in-house counsel John Moszynsky was fired 10 days ago by the trustees, one of many employees terminated because “they somehow failed the litmus test of loyalty. These were politically motivated retaliations.

“Mr. Moszynsky was going to run for the vice-presidency of LIUNA against the current regional manager and vice president for Canada, Mr. Mancinelli,” said Shell.

“Yet a man named in the Keller report as having forged signatures on a Collective Agreement, Jaime Melo, has been promoted to assistant business manager of High Rise Formers. It’s ironic.”

Melo was also one of five men placed under surveillance by Local 183 at a cost of $130,000 following a now-infamous meeting in a cemetery. Melo was not at the cemetery meeting, which was also recorded by private detectives working for Local 183 because of fears of an organized crime connection. However, he too was placed under surveillance following that meeting.

The $130,000 was part of more than $340,000 spent on surveillance between March 2004 and April 2005 and funds cited as part of the reason for the trusteeship.

Since the trustees took over at the Wilson Avenue offices, investigators have found hidden, pinhole digital video cameras in the ceilings wired to a computer which was apparently removed before the take-over.

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