A suit has been filed in Coquitlam, BC alleging the IBEW has unlawfully collected thousands of dollars in union dues without the consent of its members.
In June 1992, the IBEW (Local 213) began collecting five per cent of members' wages from hundreds of members (approximately $200.00 per month per member) to go towards an Electrical Industry Advance Fund.
Union contractors, when faced with open-shop competition, make application to the IBEW leadership for subsidies from the fund to effectively lower the price of their bids.
The deductions were only to take place on work done under the IBEW's Inside Wiremen's Agreement when members were working for the full collective agreement wage rate. Plaintiff says the practice was unlawfully extended to include major projects built under the NDP's union- only schemes including Highway Constructors Ltd. (HCL) and Columbia Hydro Constructors Ltd. Under these agreements members were already paid a reduced wage rate.
Plaintiff claims they were already working at reduced hourly rates on the HCL projects when, without their agreement, the union came along and took another five per cent of their pay cheques and gave it to the contractors.
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