A picket line is presumed legal until the union assures members it's not legal and that the union authorizes members to cross.
Anyone who crosses a picket line, and if the picket line is found to be legal can be subject to fines in the thousands of dollars.
Union members don't cross picket lines unless the union tells them it's okay.
That being said, union members don't have the right to leave the store or plant if a picket line appears when they are in the store or plant.
If those employees leave the store or plant for lunch, they cannot return accross a legal picket line. If you leave for lunch, take your belongings with you.
Shop Stewards
I hope the machine reads this asap.
Everyone is familiar with the ofg/Loman warehouse mess. The rumors are rampant that the workers may picket Save-ons. Nothing has been decided. (tomorrow, Fri. 21st could be P-day).
Weeks ago when things heated up and after fielding many questions from workers about whether or not they should cross, or what to do should a picket occur, a letter was written to management and the machine for direction. Customers and employees alike had many questions regarding the leafletting and dispute in general. There has been no formal response from either.
Today took the cake. I was approached by my appointed shop steward and asked what she was supposed to do if the store was picketed.
Yes you read it right. The appointed shop steward did not know if she was to cross the picket line or what to do should there be a picket and she had had many co-workers asking, but was unsure what to tell them.
I assured her the only thing to do at this time, was to get a real union. 
(and then I told her the whole truth).
Here's the extent of ufcw 1518 solidarity in light of the dispute.
#946 appointed chief steward: "It's common sense"
#946 ppointed steward: "I have no idea what to do".
1518 Officials: Nada, zip, zero, squeak, zilch.
Gawd help us 'cause the machine hasn't.
Thanks weiser. This will be great to give to the manager who is telling people "crossing a picket line is your personal choice"
ed=management have already received their memo/instructions of what to do if picketing should occur.
pff un believable!!!! Ignorance is bliss. close your eyes pretend its not happening. first we strike. we picket Loman and EV. we then MUST apply to the LRB, for the right to picket the stores. how long that takes I dunno. will the guys wait???? again I dunno. BUT nothing can stop Us from Picketing ALBERTA warehouse or the Alberta Save Ons. except the courts and I think a Message Will be sent to Ole JP... You dont own Alberta's Government 
Tell em to try crossing the picket line. They will find out real fast what will happen.
Tell them to make sure they have a few spare tires in their trunk.
Geeze.....If they even entertain the thought, they should have their union cards pulled, which should in turn cost them their jobs!
I can unnderstannd some of the new-hires having questions like that, but stewards?????
Holy Corn...whats up with that? 
I heard about the Alberta angle. Great idea! I think some leafletts have already been sent up there in the loads to start the information happening.
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If they even entertain the thought, they should have their union cards pulled, which should in turn cost them their jobs!
Me thinks they should have their union pulled.
For 250 members there are 2 stewards, one works part time. Members go to management for information. Yep there's some good solidarity happening at 946.
Me thinks they should have their union pulled.
I think you need better stewards. Ones that are actually capable of doing their jobs. If you feel that your stewards arent getting the proper message out, you should call your buisness agent and have him/her come in and set them straight. Store 946 has some of the weakest member support of any store I've been in. It's pathetic. take a trip to metrotown, or the warehouse and see what solidairity is really about.
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you should call your buisness agent and have him/her come in and set them straight.
Who do I call to set the MR straight before he comes to set the stewards straight?
Wanna see my petitions for steward elections? Wanna see my letters to the prez?
I don't doubt your efforts at all Siggy.
I wish we had more people like you.
If your business agent won't answer your calls (is that whats happening?) Start making them everyday untill you get a responce, or ask someone else to make them for you if you think your being purposly ignored.
Be persistant is all I can suggest.
No worries,,, Memo I wasnt worth wipin your butt with. apparently jeff didn't have authority to sign document. strike is MOOT and the machine looks stunned. had authority to sign everything but memo I it appears. shows what can happen when you have government in your pockets
>>>===Direct Action Now===>
So the MOU is a bust? What about all those great pronouncements that the machine heads and their lawyer made about their chances of winning? Didn't the lawyer say "it'll fly" or some crap like that? Oh wait, I get it, maybe they were just discussing rocket science or looking for a better way to get to the planet Biz-utopia.
I think you are all owed an explanation.
The machine heads are out trying to figure their next move...
Folks you have to understand this is all just a big game and you are pawns. OFG tells the members very early on in the year that "your toast" then sits back and watches the show. The union stalls for time hoping the members will soften up enough to accept a pathetic deal and huge cut in wages, or they can at least secure the new warehouse with some sort of voluntary wreck deal.
The union tells you to have faith, "it's not over yet" keep this under your hat but...we have an ace in the hole. We'll do this, and we'll do that and in the meantime keep going to work and doing your job. All the while the clock keeps ticking down.
The only wrench in this whole affair is the Lomans people who refuse to stay quite and wait it out. No problem though, the company just use's this to pit one union member against the other. They have their managers test the waters and see who if anyone would be willing to cross a Lomans picket line. If people seem willing now then down the road in 2003 they'll be just as willing won't they? They also get to see just how strong a backbone the union has for a fight and what they might expect from them infront of the LRB etc and in the media.
Think of this as a small skirmish to test their weapons and sharpen their blades before the really big battle begins next spring. Oh yeh, speaking of next spring, don't expect to be out on a picket line prior to easter either, that's just too big a week for sales despite the contract running out in the middle of the month. Sales in the Lower mainland tend to stagnate or even slightly drop off during the summer months when school gets out, not to mention the child care issues for parents who don't want to bring their kids to a picket line [particularly if people are crossing it and things are getting nasty] That's why I believe if in fact a strike does happen your looking at next summer.
Better start planning and thinking ahead.
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or ask someone else to make them for you if you think your being purposly ignored.
Be persistant is all I can suggest.
If you wear a *union label* that reads renegade dissident being sued by her union for what she says, nobody wants to help you.
Pawns on a chessboard...UFCW and OFG move the workers around the board...
That's not ofg and ufcw, there are way too many women in that picture.
The pawns are women. The guys who move them around are guys. The machine heads are about to find out that there are real draw backs to using women as pawns. 
I'd love to see a legal analysis of the decsion
The file is BCLRB No. B221/2002
I'm just an ole box-moving bonehead but that pain in my arse tells me them lawyers n'such have bin tradin' papers agin.
It's rather odd that in law the employer is responsible for the actions of its employees. If the doofus signed a contract on behalf of the employer, the employer is stuck with it. They should go after the doofus, not the other employees.
If that letter was supposed to be an intregal part of the CA, then the CA should be nullified.
Me thinks the union has some more information that might be beneficial in helping everyone put the whole mess in perspective.
If they ratified the CA with no mention of the MOU, then the MOU may mean nothing. Why wasn't the MOU included in the CA? Why wasn't it mentioned in or attached to an appendix?
Perhaps the Chubby Chums could answer some more questions.
Re: The Loman Decision.
Why in heck did the union go to the Board in the first place? It's obvious that the Memorandum was an "interim" document. Once the collective agreement was signed, the Memorandum was dead.
That Limpright guy signed the Memorandum, but he was nothing more than a shop steward. He wouldn't have authority to bind the UFCW. I think that's abundantly clear in that Brooke Sundin signed the collective agreement a few days later.
In any event, the the right hand know what the left was up to? Brooke effectively killed the Memorandum when he signed the collective agreement a few days later.
From my reading of the decision, the UFCW had lost before it started. What did the union's lawyers say before it went to the Labour Board?
I think it's time the UFCW did some real union activity. A lot could have been done with the time spent and the money wasted on lawyers.
What is Brooke prepared to do to make this right, and I don't mean spend money on lawyers.
I think this sums it all up...
Mr. Block cartoons rock...
I didn't know where else to post this so I'm putting it here. I was talking to one of our cashiers today who used to work at the Safeway in Tsawwassen. She told me about the problems she was having with hrs and in particular with another employee. She didn't feel she could go to management because this person was "very good friends with the boss" so she called the union.
Her "acting business rep" for that store was John Autin. A glorified Safeway grocery clerk and "action team" e-board imposter parading around as a business agent for God only knows what reason. According to her his responce to her concerns was...."if your not happy just quit"
What a briliant idea, she did and now she works for us. And does anyone want to guess what she thinks of unions? and not a particular union but "unions" in general. It's blatent stupidity like this that is going to be the UFCW's undoing. But then with the current criteria for getting hired I doubt the UFCW can really do any better.
What purpose would you have John to say something that irresponcible to a dues paying member? is it so you can aid turnover and increase innitiation revenue from the junior clerk[s] hired to replace her? do you get a head count bonus from the union? 
I'm at a loss here. Why don't you enlighten us? give us all some insight into the methodology of impersonating a trade unionist in the UFCW. I'm just dying to learn.
with all the ranting and raving about shop stewards not knowing anything, each and every one of you should be lucky not to have our chief shop steward.....Rick Romano. you can fit on the head of a pin the amount of caring this clown has for his fellow workers. thank god the MFD and the electors in the last 'election' didn't give him any power.
Power is an addiction like any other. At some point the behavior will reach its "bottom". At that point change will occur. In the end it will take time. Time for UFCW members to get involved and ask what they are prepared to do. Paying into the union gets you very little - a tax deduction at the end of the year. Being involved gets you results. Nothing is free. Why should this be any different?