In Good Faith? An Analysis of the Features and Outcomes of Duty of Fair Representation Cases

While the union’s duty of fair representation (DFR) toward its members is well established in Canadian labour law, relatively little research has examined Canadian DFR cases or factors that may affect the outcome of DFR complaints. This paper examines 138 DFR cases filed with the British Columbia Labour Relations Board between 2000 and 2006. Only eight of the 138 cases resulted in a decision in favour of the complainant. The most common reasons for DFR complaints were the union’s alleged failure to pursue grievances relating to termination or to pursue grievances relating to job changes. The majority of complainants represented themselves in the process. Future research could expand upon these findings to improve understanding of the duty of fair representation and its application.Le devoir de représentation équitable du syndicat envers ses membres est clairement établi dans le droit du travail canadien. On attend que les syndicats représentent leurs membres de manière non arbitraire, sans discrimination et de bonne foi. Ce devoir est interprété comme englobant les actions du syndicat durant les négociations collectives, ainsi que dans le cadre de ses autres interactions avec ses membres et afférentes à leurs intérêts, ce qui peut présenter un défi aux syndicats car on attend aussi d’eux qu’ils agissent pour protéger les intérêts collectifs de tous leurs membres. Le devoir de représentation équitable offre également aux membres du syndicat un recours externe s’ils pensent que les actions de leur syndicat ne sont pas équitables.Relativement peu de recherches ont examiné les actions visant le devoir de représentation équitable au Canada, ou cerné les facteurs qui peuvent influer sur le traitement des plaintes de manquement à ce devoir. Ce document examine 138 plaintes associées à ce devoir déposées au British Columbia Labour Relations Board (Conseil des relations du travail de Colombie-Britannique) entre 2000 et 2006. Dans chaque cas, l’information suivante a été enregistrée : l’identité des parties en cause, s’il s’agissait d’un plaignant ou d’une plaignante, le fondement de la plainte, la résolution de la plainte, et si une des parties ou toutes étaient représentées par un avocat durant les délibérations.L’article 12 du Code des relations du travail de Colombie-Britannique décrit brièvement le devoir de représentation équitable. Les plaignants déposant une plainte en vertu de l’article 12 doivent payer un droit de dépôt de 100 dollars. Le Conseil rend disponible la documentation sur son site Web, en expliquant la démarche de résolution de la plainte et avisant les plaignants éventuels des résultats de plaintes antérieures associées au devoir de représentation équitable qui ont établi des normes et des lignes directrices relatives à l’évaluation par le Conseil des plaintes déposées en vertu de l’article 12. Les données du Conseil indiquent que les plaintes associées à ce devoir représentaient entre 4 % et 8 % du nombre des causes déposées chaque année entre 2001 et 2005. La majorité de ces plaintes ont été rejetées par manque d’établissement d’une preuve prima facie.Les résultats de cette analyse indiquent que seules huit des 138 affaires examinées ont abouti en faveur du plaignant. Les syndicats qui faisaient le plus souvent l’objet d’une plainte associée au devoir de représentation équitable étaient de grands syndicats représentant de multiples lieux de travail et des travailleurs dans diverses occupations. Les industries qui, le plus souvent, ont donné lieu à des plaintes associées à ce devoir étaient celles de la construction, des soins de santé et de l’assistance sociale, et de l’administration publique. Les raisons les plus courantes de ces plaintes étaient le prétendu manquement du syndicat à poursuivre un grief concernant une cessation d’emploi ou des griefs concernant des changements de poste. La majorité des plaignants n’ont pas cité un type spécifique de comportement de la part du syndicat (comportement arbitraire, discrimination ou avoir agi de mauvaise foi) en soumettant leur plainte. Il n’y avait pas de différences évidentes entre les plaignants et plaignantes en ce qui concerne le nombre de plaintes déposées ou le résultat des plaintes.Les résultats de l’analyse suggèrent plusieurs orientations que devraient suivre la recherche future. Il n’est pas clair si le nombre de plaintes associées au devoir de représentation équitable déposées, et le taux de succès de ces plaintes, représentent réellement le nombre de cas où un syndicat a en fait agit de façon inéquitable en représentant ses membres. Une autre considération consiste à déterminer s’il pourrait y avoir des circonstances, tel que le droit de 100 dollars à payer pour déposer une plainte, qui découragent des plaignants éventuels. Il semble également que plusieurs plaignants dans les causes analysées pourraient ne pas comprendre les implications des dispositions de l’article 12, ou comment ces dispositions sont appliquées pour déterminer le résultat des plaintes associées au devoir de représentation équitable, malgré l’information présentée sur le site Web du Conseil des relations du travail de C.-B. Le fait que de nombreux plaignants ne précisent pas la nature du comportement prétendument inéquitable du syndicat valide cette possibilité. On pourrait toutefois faire valoir qu’en raison de la disparité potentielle sur le plan des connaissances et des ressources entre le plaignant et le syndicat, les conseils des relations du travail devraient faire preuve d’une certaine souplesse ou latitude lorsqu’ils appliquent la « lettre de la loi » dans les causes relatives au devoir de représentation équitable.La recherche future pourrait approfondir ces constatations en examinant plus en détail les caractéristiques des plaintes associées au devoir de représentation équitable qui ont eu des résultats positifs et négatifs. Les formes qualitatives de collecte de données, telles que les entrevues avec les plaignants ou avec les représentants syndicaux qui traitent avec ces plaintes, serviraient grandement à recenser éventuellement des facteurs moins tangibles qui influent sur le dépôt ou les résultats d’une plainte de manquement au devoir de représentation équitable qui pourraient ne pas être détectés par des formes plus quantitatives d’analyse. Les caractéristiques de ces plaintes pourraient aussi être évaluées en fonction d’autres dimensions, comme par exemple en fonction de différentes sphères de compétence et à différentes dates.Mientras el deber de justa representación (DJR) de parte del sindicato hacia sus miembros está bien establecido en las leyes laborales canadienses, son relativamente pocas las investigaciones que han examinado los casos DJR en Canadá o los factores que pueden afectar los resultados de las quejas respecto al DJR. Este documento examina 138 casos DJR seguidos por la Oficina de relaciones laborales de Colombia Británica entre 2000 y 2006. Solo ocho de los 138 casos resultaron en una decisión a favor del demandante. Las razones más comunes para presentar quejas fueron el fracaso alegado por el sindicato para proseguir los recursos relativos a la cesación de empleo o los recursos relativos a cambios de empleo. La mayoría de demandantes se representaron ellos mismos durante el proceso. Investigaciones futuras podrían desarrollar más ampliamente estos resultados para mejorar la comprensión sobre el deber de justa representación y su aplicación

Long wavelength structural anomalies in jammed systems

The structural properties of static, jammed packings of monodisperse spheres in the vicinity of the jamming transition are investigated using large-scale computer simulations. At small wavenumber $k$, we argue that the anomalous behavior in the static structure factor, $S(k) \sim k$, is consequential of an excess of low-frequency, collective excitations seen in the vibrational spectrum. This anomalous feature becomes more pronounced closest to the jamming transition, such that $S(0) \to 0$ at the transition point. We introduce an appropriate dispersion relation that accounts for these phenomena that leads us to relate these structural features to characteristic length scales associated with the low-frequency vibrational modes of these systems. When the particles are frictional, this anomalous behavior is suppressed providing yet more evidence that jamming transitions of frictional spheres lie at lower packing fractions that that for frictionless spheres. These results suggest that the mechanical properties of jammed and glassy media may therefore be inferred from measurements of both the static and dynamical structure factors.Comment: 8 pages, 6 figure captions. Completely revised version to appear in Phys. Rev.

Deterministic reaction models with power-law forces

We study a one-dimensional particles system, in the overdamped limit, where nearest particles attract with a force inversely proportional to a power of their distance and coalesce upon encounter. The detailed shape of the distribution function for the gap between neighbouring particles serves to discriminate between different laws of attraction. We develop an exact Fokker-Planck approach for the infinite hierarchy of distribution functions for multiple adjacent gaps and solve it exactly, at the mean-field level, where correlations are ignored. The crucial role of correlations and their effect on the gap distribution function is explored both numerically and analytically. Finally, we analyse a random input of particles, which results in a stationary state where the effect of correlations is largely diminished

Statics and dynamics of a cylindrical droplet under an external body force

We study the rolling and sliding motion of droplets on a corrugated substrate by Molecular Dynamics simulations. Droplets are driven by an external body force (gravity) and we investigate the velocity profile and dissipation mechanisms in the steady state. The cylindrical geometry allows us to consider a large range of droplet sizes. The velocity of small droplets with a large contact angle is dominated by the friction at the substrate and the velocity of the center of mass scales like the square root of the droplet size. For large droplets or small contact angles, however, viscous dissipation of the flow inside the volume of the droplet dictates the center of mass velocity that scales linearly with the size. We derive a simple analytical description predicting the dependence of the center of mass velocity on droplet size and the slip length at the substrate. In the limit of vanishing droplet velocity we quantitatively compare our simulation results to the predictions and good agreement without adjustable parameters is found.Comment: Submitted to the Journal of Chemical Physic

Association between urinary sodium, creatinine, albumin, and long term survival in chronic kidney disease

Dietary sodium intake is associated with hypertension and cardiovascular risk in the general population. In patients with chronic kidney disease, sodium intake has been associated with progressive renal disease, but not independently of proteinuria. We studied the relationship between urinary sodium excretion and urinary sodium:creatinine ratio and mortality or requirement for renal replacement therapy in chronic kidney disease. Adults attending a renal clinic who had at least one 24-hour urinary sodium measurement were identified. 24-hour urinary sodium measures were collected and urinary sodium:creatinine ratio calculated. Time to renal replacement therapy or death was recorded. 423 patients were identified with mean estimated glomerular filtration rate of 48ml/min/1.73m<sup>2</sup>. 90 patients required renal replacement therapy and 102 patients died. Mean slope decline in estimated glomerular filtration rate was -2.8ml/min/1.73m<sup>2</sup>/year. Median follow-up was 8.5 years. Patients who died or required renal replacement therapy had significantly higher urinary sodium excretion and urinary sodium:creatinine but the association with these parameters and poor outcome was not independent of renal function, age and albuminuria. When stratified by albuminuria, urinary sodium:creatinine was a significant cumulative additional risk for mortality, even in patients with low level albuminuria. There was no association between low urinary sodium and risk, as observed in some studies. This study demonstrates an association between urinary sodium excretion and mortality in chronic kidney disease, with a cumulative relationship between sodium excretion, albuminuria and reduced survival. These data support reducing dietary sodium intake in chronic kidney disease but further study is required to determine the target sodium intake

Description beyond the mean field approximation of an electrolyte confined between two planar metallic electrodes

We study an electrolyte confined in a slab of width $W$ composed of two grounded metallic parallel electrodes. We develop a description of this system in a low coupling regime beyond the mean field (Poisson--Boltzmann) approximation. There are two ways to model the metallic boundaries: as ideal conductors in which the electric potential is zero and it does not fluctuate, or as good conductors in which the average electric potential is zero but the thermal fluctuations of the potential are not zero. This latter model is more realistic. For the ideal conductor model we find that the disjoining pressure is positive behaves as $1/W^3$ for large separations with a prefactor that is universal, i.e. independent of the microscopic constitution of the system. For the good conductor boundaries the disjoining pressure is negative and it has an exponential decay for large $W$. We also compute the density and electric potential profiles inside the electrolyte. These are the same in both models. If the electrolyte is charge asymmetric we find that the system is not locally neutral and that a non-zero potential difference builds up between any electrode and the interior of the system although both electrodes are grounded.Comment: 16 pages, 5 figures, added a new appendix B and a discussion on ideal conductors vs. good conductor

Virial series for inhomogeneous fluids applied to the Lennard-Jones wall-fluid surface tension at planar and curved walls

We formulate a straightforward scheme of statistical mechanics for inhomogeneous systems that includes the virial series in powers of the activity for the grand free energy and density distributions. There, cluster integrals formulated for inhomogeneous systems play a main role. We center on second order terms that were analyzed in the case of hard-wall confinement, focusing in planar, spherical and cylindrical walls. Further analysis was devoted to the Lennard-Jones system and its generalization the 2k-k potential. For this interaction potentials the second cluster integral was evaluated analytically. We obtained the fluid-substrate surface tension at second order for the planar, spherical and cylindrical confinement. Spherical and cylindrical cases were analyzed using a series expansion in the radius including higher order terms. We detected a $\ln R^{-1}/R^{2}$ dependence of the surface tension for the standard Lennard-Jones system confined by spherical and cylindrical walls, no matter if particles are inside or outside of the hard-walls. The analysis was extended to bending and Gaussian curvatures, where exact expressions were also obtained.Comment: 15 pages, 6 figure

Stability of adhesion clusters under constant force

We solve the stochastic equations for a cluster of parallel bonds with shared constant loading, rebinding and the completely dissociated state as an absorbing boundary. In the small force regime, cluster lifetime grows only logarithmically with bond number for weak rebinding, but exponentially for strong rebinding. Therefore rebinding is essential to ensure physiological lifetimes. The number of bonds decays exponentially with time for most cases, but in the intermediate force regime, a small increase in loading can lead to much faster decay. This effect might be used by cell-matrix adhesions to induce signaling events through cytoskeletal loading.Comment: Revtex, 4 pages, 4 Postscript files include

Variational approach for electrolyte solutions: from dielectric interfaces to charged nanopores

A variational theory is developed to study electrolyte solutions, composed of interacting point-like ions in a solvent, in the presence of dielectric discontinuities and charges at the boundaries. Three important and non-linear electrostatic effects induced by these interfaces are taken into account: surface charge induced electrostatic field, solvation energies due to the ionic cloud, and image charge repulsion. Our variational equations thus go beyond the mean-field theory. The influence of salt concentration, ion valency, dielectric jumps, and surface charge is studied in two geometries. i) A single neutral air-water interface with an asymmetric electrolyte. A charge separation and thus an electrostatic field gets established due to the different image charge repulsions for coions and counterions. Both charge distributions and surface tension are computed and compared to previous approximate calculations. For symmetric electrolyte solutions close to a charged surface, two zones are characterized. In the first one, with size proportional to the logarithm of the coupling parameter, strong image forces impose a total ion exclusion, while in the second zone the mean-field approach applies. ii) A symmetric electrolyte confined between two dielectric interfaces as a simple model of ion rejection from nanopores. The competition between image charge repulsion and attraction of counterions by the membrane charge is studied. For small surface charge, the counterion partition coefficient decreases with increasing pore size up to a critical pore size, contrary to neutral membranes. For larger pore sizes, the whole system behaves like a neutral pore. The prediction of the variational method is also compared with MC simulations and a good agreement is observed.Comment: This version is accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. E