PRICES TO RISE AGAIN?
WEATHER Cloudy High 9 C Low 2 C
SUN PEAKS SNOW REPORT Mid-mountain: 147 cm Alpine: 183 cm Snow phone: 250-578-7232
WATER WARRIOR
Report warns us to budget accordingly
Kamloops’ Megan Dalke helps UBC to swimming title
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KAMLOOPS THIS WEEK THURSDAY
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MARCH 2, 2017 | Volume 30 No. 26
GIVING THE BLAZERS A HAND
The familiar Orange Man (second from left) is joined by young friends at a recent Kamloops Blazers game at Sandman Centre. The Western Hockey League club hosted Seattle last night and results and game summary are online at kamloopsthisweek.com. The Blazers have seven games remaining in the regular season before the playoffs start. The boys in Blue and Orange travel to Prince George this weekend for two crucial games against the B.C. Division-leading Cougars. Kamloops returns home next week for a pair of games against Victoria, on March 8 and March 10. ALLEN DOUGLAS/KTW
UNION FILES LRB COMPLAINT AGAINST PLAZA HOTEL DALE BASS STAFF REPORTER dale@kamloopsthisweek.com
The union representing laid-off workers at the Fireside Steakhouse and Bar has filed a complaint with the B.C. Labour Relations Board against the Plaza Hotel, which owns the now-closed restaurant in the downtown Kamloops heritage building. The union is alleging five unfair labour practices taken by the Plaza in an attempt to contract out the restaurant and bar or set up conditions for a decertification vote by staff.
Unite Here Local 40, which represents the workers who received layoff notices last month, cited five alleged violations of the Labour Relations Code, including: • interfering with the administration of the union; • terminating employees because of their membership in a union; • imposing a condition in a contract that seeks to restrain an employee from exercise rights under the code; • coercion; • ignoring a statute that establishes a certified union repre-
senting workers has an exclusive authority to bargain collectively for the unit and to bind it by a collective agreement until the certification is cancelled. Workers at the restaurant have been union members for about five decades. The following information is alleged by the union its its complaint: On Feb. 6, the union was told the restaurant would be permanently closed. The next day, union representative Andrew Pritchard agreed with Shatha Al-Reihani, general
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manager of the Plaza Hotel, to meet with the employees on Feb. 14 or Feb. 15 to discuss issues arising from the information. On Feb, 8, Al-Reihani told Pritchard she was rescheduling the meeting for Feb. 9 due to “negative buzz among the staff,” the complaint states, telling Pritchard if he did not reply by 4 p.m. — the complaint says the advisory of the new date was sent at noon that day — she would consider the date change approved. Employees were told to meet with Al-Reihani and did so.
Another meeting with staff was held on Feb. 15. The complaint says no union representatives were present at either meeting. The union alleges in its complaint staff was told jobs were terminated and they were offered their records of employment (ROE) back and vacation pay, along with severance — “but only if they agreed to sign a release.” One employee refused and her ROE and payments owed were withheld, the union said.
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