The Freeze Provision Explained
What Labour Board Decisions Say
What CLC Unions Say
Unions affiliated with the Canadian Labour Congress (CLC), which include OPSEU, LIUNA, UNIFOR, SEIU, HOPE, and others, all agree that your collective agreement terms and conditions are frozen in place when potential members are seeking to change unions in favour of joining a CLC-affiliated union.
Let’s hope that they have the integrity to tell you the same thing when you are trying to leave them.
OPSEU
The Ontario Labour Relations Act
YOU ARE PROTECTED
Once the union has applied for certification, if the majority of the votes are “YES”, your employer can no longer change your wage and benefit systems and working conditions. Changes to your terms of employment must now be made through the legally protected process of negotiation.
HOPE 2220
Changing your union representation to HOPE Local 2220:
What happens when HOPE wins the vote?
The OLRB “certifies” HOPE as your new union – your new “bargaining agent.” HOPE then notifies your employer of its intention to negotiate a new agreement.
Your existing collective agreement disappears (“ceases to operate” in the language of the Labour Relations Act) along with your old union. BUT the terms and conditions of that agreement remain FROZEN in place until a new agreement is negotiated.
8. Empty Threats from the Old Union
It is common for the old union to threaten dissatisfied members that they will lose everything and “have to start from square one” if they get a new union. This is completely false. The law recognizes that workers would not want to change their union if they automatically lost their current wages, benefits and working conditions as a result. The law sensibly protects workers’ existing rights during the transition period to a new collective agreement.
LIUNA Local 1110
Frequently Asked Questions
What happens when a majority vote for the union?
Following a majority vote, the Labour Relations Board “certifies” the Ontario Federation of Health Care Workers – LIUNA 110 as your bargaining agent. As of that point, the union speaks for you to your employer.
The first thing we do is service notice to your employer that we wish to negotiate a collective agreement covering all workers. We then hold meetings with workers, they decide what they will want in their collective agreement (the “contract”).
Contract negotiations typically take a while because there are so many issues to work through. But until you have a contract your wages, benefits and working conditions are FROZEN by law. They may not be changed without a compelling business reason that the employer must justify to the Labour Relations Board.
