It appears that nothing much happened today in the court in terms of G.M.’s argument for damages resulting from the CAW protest picket line. Recall we noted in an earlier entry that in Ontario it remains difficult to obtain damages in court against a union. That is because the Rights of Labour Act still has the effect of preventing a union from suingin its own name, or from being sued, in a civil action. Note that G.M. actually named “CAW, Local 222” as a defendent, along with several other individual union members and executives. There is no doubt that a court could hold the individuals liable, but it remains questionable that the CAW, Local 222 could be ordered to pay damages. It seems highly unlikely that GM would try to get $250,000 from individual CAW members given that the company has just announced the closure of their workplace. How would that go over as a public relations exercise, do you think?
David Doorey
Professor Doorey is an Associate Professor of Work Law and Industrial Relations at York University. He is the Director of the School of HRM at York and Director of Osgoode Hall Law School’s executive LLM Program in Labour and Employment Law and on the Advisory Board of the Osgoode Certificate program in Labour Law. He is a Senior Research Associate at Harvard Law School’s Labor and Worklife Program and a member of the International Advisory Committee on Harvard University’s Clean Slate Project, which is re-imaging labor law for the 21st century
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