Labour board cites management's unlawful interference in organizing campaign
Workers at Steam Whistle Brewery's Etobicoke facility have won automatic union recognition after the Ontario Labour Relations Board (OLRB) ruled that the craft brewer unlawfully interfered in an organizing campaign.
The OLRB certified Service Employees International Union (SEIU) local 2 as the bargaining agent for the brewery's manufacturing and distribution workers — without a representation vote.
It is a rarely granted remedy reserved for cases where an employer's conduct has so damaged a campaign that a fair vote is no longer considered possible.
Steam Whistle was recognized earlier this year by Deloitte's Canada's Best Managed Companies program for the 18th consecutive year. The company declined to comment on the labour board decision after a request from Canadian HR Reporter.
The campaign and what went wrong
The organizing drive began in the spring of 2024, when brewer Geoff Albrecht contacted SEIU Local 2 after growing frustrated with conditions at the 249 Evans Avenue facility. By May, a small group of brewery workers had begun quietly canvassing colleagues across the plant's six departments — Brewery, Maintenance, Quality Assurance, Warehouse, Packaging, and Delivery.
The Board found that Steam Whistle management had learned of the drive as early as May 2, 2024 — a finding supported by text messages between the company's CEO, Greg Taylor, and supervisor Brian Hann. In one exchange, Hann texted Taylor that Albrecht "is trying to gather people to get a union," adding, "We don't need that." Taylor agreed.
What followed, the Board concluded, was a coordinated effort to neutralize the campaign's leadership before it could build momentum.
Promotions, a firing and a warning
On May 9, 2024, Steam Whistle promoted both Albrecht and fellow organizer Ian Fraser to the position of brewing supervisor, giving each a wage increase of roughly two dollars per hour. The Board found the timing was not coincidental. In a May 7 text to vice president of HR Lorna Willner, Taylor wrote that promoting the two men would "outsmart everyone" and noted that "We cannot be seen to be offering them money to persuade them not to join the union."
Taylor later texted Hann that "I think we've nipped this in the bud."
The promotions were designed, the Board found, to remove the campaign's two internal leaders from the bargaining unit — making them ineligible to vote or participate in any eventual union drive. However, the Board found the promotions were largely cosmetic. Neither man had the authority to hire, fire or make effective staffing recommendations. When both recommended against dismissing a struggling colleague and asked for more time, management overruled them.
Management then attempted to have Fraser personally conduct that colleague's termination — an act Fraser refused, telling his supervisor the situation reminded him of being made to "kill someone to prove your allegiance" to a gang. Steam Whistle dismissed Fraser without cause on May 23, 2024, offering him a severance package conditional on signing a release.
Five days later, Albrecht received a written warning for promoting union membership on company time — despite the Board's finding that three members of management had spoken to employees about the organizing drive during working hours without consequence.
‘Reduced interest’ after dismissal
The Board found that Fraser's dismissal had an immediate and measurable impact on the campaign. Within days of his firing, Packaging Department workers — who made up more than 50 percent of the proposed bargaining unit — stopped responding to organizers' requests to meet. A free lunch information session held on June 5 drew a single attendee.
SEIU needed 24 signed membership cards to reach the 40 percent threshold required to trigger a representation vote. It obtained 19 in total, the last signed on June 5. The Board found that, had Packaging workers remained engaged, the union would have needed only five additional signatures from that department — representing 20 percent of its workforce — to clear the threshold.
"The dismissal was, at least in part, the cause of that reduced interest," vice-chair Brian Mulroney wrote in the decision. He ordered automatic certification under section 11(2)(c) of the Labour Relations Act, 1995, concluding that no other remedy would be sufficient to address the damage caused by Fraser's termination.
In October 2025, Willner spoke with Canadian HR Reporter about the brewery recognizing employees with five years of service with a five-day, all-expenses-paid trip to Europe.
‘Monumental decision’
Albrecht called the ruling a landmark for an industry where workers are often undervalued.
"This is a monumental decision in an industry where people are taken advantage of for their passion," he said in a statement released by SEIU Local 2. "It shows that it is possible to organize your workplace. With a union, I am truly optimistic about the future."
SEIU Local 2 said the decision affirms that workers have the right to organize without facing retaliation, and called it a victory for the broader labour movement.
The OLRB's order requires Steam Whistle to distribute copies of the decision and a Board-approved notice to all current employees. The parties must now negotiate the description of the certified bargaining unit, and the question of any personal remedy owed to Fraser — including possible compensation — has been remitted to the parties, with the vice-chair remaining available to decide the matter if they cannot reach agreement.
