THE B.C. Court of Appeal has rejected a bid from the Teamsters union to toss out an injunction preventing striking railway workers from harassing people at two Lower Mainland stations.
The union asked the Court of Appeal to reconsider an injunction preventing strikers from "harassing" "unlawfully watching or besetting" and "following or pursuing" any passengers or replacement workers of the Great Canadian Railtour Company - also known as the Rocky Mountaineer - arguing there wasn't enough evidence to grant an injunction.
But a panel of appeal court judges disagreed, saying they agreed with the judge who had deemed the union members' behaviour "demeaning, degrading and intimidating."
Court documents in the case point to the bitter and acrimonious nature of the labour dispute, which began in June of 2011 when the union representing the workers at tourist railway company served strike notice. The company then locked those employees out. Since then, the company has been operating with managers and non-unionized replacement workers.
Evidence presented in the case included several instances of a shuttle bus carrying replacement workers and company executives being followed from North Vancouver to downtown by vehicles driven by union members.
One replacement worker, Lisa Poehlke, described how picketers yelled "scabs" and "you're taking our jobs" at her while pointing their fingers in her face.
She also described being followed one day as she drove from the North Vancouver station to her home in Surrey.
Company representatives also described picketers yelling "scabs, scabs, goddamn scabs" at a bus carrying passengers, including children, who appeared "startled" and "apprehensive."
In their own arguments, union representatives denied members had followed buses or replacement workers to harass them, arguing that they had just happened to be in the same vicinity.
They argued they had also seen replacement workers make "provocative gestures" towards picketers such as "high fiving, kissing their hands and slapping their buttocks" and "giving picketers 'the finger'."
The appeal court justices didn't buy those arguments as persuasive however. They dismissed the union's action and upheld the original decision of the chambers judge to grant an injunction to the company.
Last month, B.C. Supreme Court Justice Kenneth Affleck ordered the Teamsters Union local 31 to pay $25,000 to the Greater Vancouver Food Bank - or the court - for disobeying that order.
The labour dispute between the Teamsters union and the rail company is continuing.
