Fired worker back on the job Nov. 7

Mike Courchesne is going back to his job at Vale Nov. 7, more than four months after an arbitrator ordered his reinstatement and more than three years after he was originally fired.

He is one of nine Steelworkers Local 6500 members fired during the union's 2009-2010 strike against Vale.

The Ontario Labour Relations Board ruled in February the workers have the right to go before an arbitrator in an attempt to get their jobs back.

After an arbitrator ruled in July that Courchesne be returned to work, he was first required to pass pre-employment medical tests.

Vale wanted him to visit a doctor in Toronto for the exam. His union wanted him to visit a doctor in Sudbury, which he was ultimately allowed to do in September.

“I saw (Courchesne) on Friday,” Steelworkers lawyer Brian Shell said. “He is delighted and ready and physically and mentally fit to go back to work. The union is completely thrilled he'll be returning to work on Wednesday.”

Shell added there's a “certain irony” Courchesne is returning to work a week after John Pollesel, who had been Vale's director, base metals North Atlantic operations, lost his job due to company restructuring.

In his February ruling, labour board member Ian Anderson said Pollesel made the original decision not to allow the fired workers to attempt to get their jobs back through arbitration, which ultimately ended up prolonging the strike.

Courchesne was fired just one month into the strike — in August 2009 — because of behaviour on the picket line which involved comments made to Vale security personnel.

He was undergoing serious personal problems at the time both related and unrelated to the strike, and was under the influence of alcohol when the incident occurred.

The arbitration hearings for another of the fired workers, Ron Breault, wrapped up Nov. 2. Shell said he hopes to have a decision on his case from arbitrator Janice Johnston in three to six weeks.

“Not surprisingly, the company sought to justify its decision to terminate Breault,” he said. “The union argued that the penalty imposed on Mr. Breault for the alleged offence that he committed was just grotesquely excessive.”

Breault was also fired in August 2009, just three weeks into the strike. Like Courchesne, he “engaged in some inappropriate speech” to a company official on the picket line, Shell said.

“Under normal circumstances, that kind of inappropriate speech would result in relatively minor discipline,” he said.

“The company seized the opportunity to make an example of Mr. Breault. Then Mr. Breault unfortunately got caught up in the ideological commitment of the company to not return anybody to work who had been fired.”

As for the rest of the fired workers' cases, the joint arbitration for Jason Patterson, Patrick Veinot and Mike French continues before arbitrator William Kaplan Nov. 29-30 and Dec. 13.

The parties are also in the process of working out arbitration hearing dates for the new year.

Three of the other fired workers, Brian Miller, Adam Cowie and Dan Labelle, decided not to proceed with arbitration to get their jobs back after receiving financial settlements from Vale.

Another fired worker, John Landry, was not involved in the arbitration process because he took his pension in 2010.