By David Lucas

Public Storage Canada employees in the Greater Toronto Area of Ontario have voted to join the United Food and Commercial Workers Canada (UFCW) union. The collective bargaining unit includes property managers, assistant managers, relief managers, and maintenance staff.

In a statement issued on Thursday, Oct. 13, Troy McLellan, senior vice president-COO of Public Storage Canada, said, "In late September our employees expressed their wish to be represented by a union. We respect and abide by their decision. We have had discussions with the UFCW through the Labour Board of Ontario, regarding the make-up of the collective bargaining unit. We have concluded that select properties within Ontario will become part of the collective bargaining unit, and others will not. No discussions or negotiations on the terms of the collective bargaining agreement have commenced."

Following negotiations between Public Storage and the UFCW at the Labour Board, the union agreed to represent only the 58 employees working at Public Storage Canada facilities in Toronto, Mississauga, Brampton, and Oakville. Eight employees in three other municipalities did not vote in favor of unionization. Public Storage operates 23 facilities in Ontario, according to the company's Web site.

"They had asked originally for Ontario to be included in the collective bargaining unit and all managers that worked for our properties," McLellan told Mini-Storage Messenger. "We asked that it not be all of Ontario, that it be specific for the address of each facility location."

The union is expected to present employee concerns to Public Storage Canada after the Labour Board of Ontario issues a collective bargaining certificate, which could be before the end of October. After receiving the certificate, the union will meet with its new members to discuss issues and make proposals to Public Storage.

Employee Issues
The employees cited scheduling and health and safety among their concerns. "On scheduling in the storage industry, that's often quite an issue in terms of how do you work, when you work, how long do you work?" says Bryan Neath, UFCW's regional director for Ontario. "Most of the maintenance staff had health and safe concerns."

The UFCW discussed other issues with employees, including unjust dismissals and pension plans, according to Neath. "For us being the largest private sector union in Canada, we certainly have the ability to find solutions for many issues, including pensions. We have one of the largest pension funds in Canada," Neath says.

McLellan says the two sides could take up to 12 months to put an agreement into effect, and agreements are typically in place for a year. Employees would not be in a "strike position" until the time the original agreement comes up for renewal. "It is essentially two years from now before they're in a strike position," McLellan says.

This is believed to be the first significant union movement involving self-storage in North America, and Public Storage appears receptive to discussing any employee issues with the union. "We will endeavor to work with the representatives of the UFCW to ensure the most efficient and beneficial outcome for everyone involved. This will include educating the UFCW on the nuances of our industry, and how it differs from the more typically unionized environment," McLellan writes in his statement.

He adds that self-storage is not a typical retail industry, and the union may have to navigate a steep learning curve. "One of the reasons unions have never approached our industry is because we're so fragmented and because of the nature of our business, it's really difficult to have a union environment," McLellan says. "Once the UFCW understands our business through collective bargaining negotiations, I think they'll come to understand there's not a lot of low hanging fruit here for a union."

Self-storage traditionally employs a small staff to run a facility, so the union vote only affects 58 Public Storage employees at this time. Nevertheless, unionizing Public Storage workers represents a big win for the UFCW.

"We are used to having units like this where there may be only a few people per location but many locations," says Neath. "The key for us is to make sure that they are in one bargaining unit. All those 58 people come under one agreement. In that regard, it's a very good win for us."

Domino Effect For Industry?
Provincial laws govern union activities, so the vote does not affect Public Storage operations in other provinces. With one domino falling in the self-storage industry, the question remains, will the union target other operators in Canada?

"We weren't targeting self-storage facilities, but often when you have a victory like this, we will get a fair amount of inquiries and sometimes that leads to unionizing many other locations," Neath says.

McLellan downplayed any sweeping effects of unionization across the industry because of self-storage's unique operations. "As an industry I don't think there's any need to worry, even if it was coming," he says. "If this was an industry that required a type of governing body between management and employees like a factory worker environment where wages and working conditions were in question, but that's not the type of environment that exists today."

McLellan says that Public Storage's wages are "equitable or better than the industry," adding, "We're close to where we need to be and if there is a disconnect between us and what our employees are asking for, I guess the agreement will bridge that gap. But it's not going to change the way we conduct our operations. It's business as usual for us; it's a bump in the road. I don't think anything that comes out of the collective bargaining agreement is going to vastly change what we do today."

He does not expect to hire special union negotiators or human resources personnel as a result of the vote. "We do have people within our organization that would potentially be able to assist with that. We certainly have folks on a contract basis that do that sort of thing for us."

Canadian Mini-Warehouse Properties Company is the manager of 52 Public Storage locations in Canada. McLellan says this entity was the target of the union movement.

UFCW Canada has more than 250,000 members representing 47 local unions. UFCW represents members in every sector of the food industry in addition to workers in health care, manufacturing, hospitality, and other sectors.

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