No agreement in sight for Kanata manufacturing workers on strike for over 5 months

Striking workers for Unifor Local 1541 in Kanata. Workers at Best Theratronics Ltd. have been on strike for five months. (Unifor/Video)

More than 40 employees at Best Theratronics Ltd. in Kanata went on strike five and a half months ago - a situation that Canada's largest private sector union says is highly unusual.

Unifor, the union who represents the workers at the manufacturing facility just off March Road, says the strike has not ended because of the actions of the company's owner, who they say has refused to negotiate with workers in good faith.

Best Theratronics manufactures external beam radiation therapy units, self-contained blood-irradiators and cyclotrons. The medical devices are often used for patients undergoing cancer radiation therapy. The company is listed as a nuclear facility by the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission.

The workers have been without a contract since March 2023 and began to strike on May 1, 2024 after the employer proposed a two-year contract with no wage increase, Unifor says. About a dozen members from the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) joined the workers about two weeks later.

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The company's president, Krishnan Suthanthiran, has owned the company for 16 years. Unifor is alleging Suthanthiran has provided "very minimal" increases for his workers and has engaged in illegal bargaining practices, including sending emails aimed directly at workers and insisting he has no mandate to bargain.

Unifor's national representative Jan Malek has said Suthanthiran's actions can be described as union busting and said she has never seen a situation like it before.

"Unfortunately, in our view, because we have maintained a position that we are ready to go to the bargaining table, we have one person who owns this company who has decided they don't want to negotiate," Malek said in an interview with Newstalk 580 CFRA’s Live with Andrew Pinsent.

Unifor filed a labour complaint against the company with the National Industrial Relations Board in June. The first hearing is expected in November. Meanwhile, its workers who are left with no solutions in sight, Malek said.

"The whole idea of collective bargaining in this country is two parties come to the table and you make every best effort to get to a deal, unfortunately that is not happening in this situation," she said.

"He doesn’t want to give any additional wages to these workers – we don’t know why. Certainly, the amount of time this has lasted has led to more economic losses for this company that far outpace what it would have taken for these workers to get back to work."

Unifor alleges Suthanthiran has started using managers and non-union personnel at the facility, while encouraging workers to cross the picket line.

According to his biography, Suthanthiran was inspired in pursuing a career in medicine after he lost his father to cancer in 1968. He moved to Canada from India "with only 400 Canadian dollars" after graduating from the University of Madras. He later attended Carleton University before founding the Virginia-based company TeamBest Global Companies, which operates globally.

In an email to workers on May 18, Suthanthiran called the "recent challenges" at Best Theratronics as "unfortunate, but predictable Canadian way of life."

"It is hard for me to be doing nothing ; I work every day , 7 days a week , my habit since Childhood," Suthanthiran wrote in the email, using erratic and often cryptic language.

He added that he felt "sad" workers have traded “A Fully Air conditioned work space” with "healthy meals" for an "unpredictable weather of heat, cold, rain" and "hanging out" outside the facility during the strike.

Suthanthiran did not agree to an interview, but sent multiple emails to CTV News, accusing the union of "killing all the jobs in Ottawa" and adding it has "been impossible" to operate a successful manufacturing business in Canada, among other emails written in all-caps with irregular punctuation.

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The Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission said in a statement it is monitoring the company for regulatory compliance to ensure the safety of workers, the public and the environment.

"CNSC inspectors have visited the facility and did not identify any concerns with Best Theratronics Ltd. related to our regulatory oversight or find evidence to support the concerns raised," a spokesperson said in an email.

"There are no operational activities occurring at the facility. The nuclear materials on site are stored safely and securely."

Unifor says it has taken the unusual step of appealing for help from politicians to order workers back to work under the terms of the previous agreement and to impose a deadline for an agreement for a new contract.

If that doesn’t happen, the union says the government will have no choice but to impose binding arbitration.

A spokesperson for Minister of Labour Steven MacKinnon confirmed to CTV News he met with the union about the situation and is planning to meet with members from PSAC. The union has also been speaking with Kanata - Carleton MP Jenna Sudds.

Malek says the talks have been productive but the union has not heard back on what steps will be taken.

"This is such a unique situation, it's not one that we see very often," Malek said.

"We need some resolve to this."

With files from Newstalk 580 CFRA