While the practice often happens to small companies here in the U.S., here is how “salting” affected one husband and wife who became the target of the IBEW in Canada.
Arc Electrical Ltd. is a small company run by a young couple from their home, where babies and bookkeeping occupy the president, Bridget Carey, better known as Mom.
It grew from nothing in 2007 to have six employees and total work in 2009 in the $600,000 range, led by Bridget’s husband Andy Nita, 36, also an instructor at Algonquin College.
The future looked bright.
The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, meanwhile, is the largest union of electricians in the world, with 725,000 members, and an Ottawa local with a high-profile membership drive underway.
In the fall of 2009, the IBEW tried to unionize the workers at Arc Electrical.
There is no other way to describe the outcome than a complete mess, so bad it was raised on the floor of the Ontario legislature.
To an outsider, it’s a story full of shocking twists and turns. “I was,” concludes Nita, “just blown away.”
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