Judge orders end to unauthorized pro-union signature used by ICBC employees

VANCOUVER – B.C. Supreme Court has granted the Insurance Corporation of B.C. an injunction to stop its employees from using an unauthorized email signature that ICBC says is pro-union.

Soon after the decision, the union instructed its members to remove the signatures.

They were changed from the company’s trademark “Building trust. Driving confidence,” to “We work, you drive; we both deserve better.”

ICBC says the changed signature has hurt the corporation’s brand and its lawyer contends the messages are a tactic for employees to garner sympathy for the union.

The lawyer representing the union argued that the signatures are a form of job action, and are no different from picketing or distributing leaflets.

ICBC and the union have been locked in a labour dispute since 2010, and while union members passed a strike vote in June, the Labour Relations Board ruled they couldn’t stage a full-scale walkout.