Fired for being 57, case set precedent in Canada
Fenwick resident and former Hayes-Dana worker McKee dies at 90
In the 1980s, Al McKee was an ordinary working man with a 32-year career with the same company until the day it threatened the 57-year-old with dismissal if he didn’t willingly retire.
Al’s sense of justice was suddenly unleashed and the case, fought through the Human
Rights Commission, remains one of the most cited age discrimination victories in Canada.
“I don’t think he could have expected what turned out,” said daughter-in-law Stephanie Snyder, a law clerk. “He was a fairly humble guy, he wasn’t well educated, but he felt he wasn’t being treated unfairly.
“A lot of other people would say ‘I just have to accept it,’ but he had a sense of what was right and what was wrong.”
The trouble started in 1985, when his employer, Hayes-Dana Inc., an auto parts manufacturer in St. Catharines decided to downsize by targeting older employees. The company argued it was letting him go because of inadequate work quality but everything in Al’s history pointed to his excellent supervisory skills and exemplary work record. As a union steward he had been a leader in improving safety at the factory.
It didn’t help that the company’s vice-president wrote a note stating the company only wanted to maintain employees with career potential, which didn’t include older employees.
Son-in-law Jeff Patterson said the treatment Al received was a humiliating blow.
“He always treated people fairly and expected to be treated fairly in return,” said Jeff. “He was told he had 30 minutes to clear out his desk.”
Jeff also said Al was not the sort to go around suing people, the case would never be about money.
“He felt he had been wronged,” said Jeff. “He wouldn’t let it go. He pursued different avenues to make it right.”
For a couple of years, Al approached various lawyers hoping one would take him on in a
wrongful dismissal case through the courts. That never went anywhere. Then a family friend suggested the Human Rights Commission, which matched him with Geri Sanson, today one of the country’s most effective human rights lawyers.
Al’s daughter, Brenda Horton, remembers Geri as being very young and very petite, pitted against the company lawyer, an obviously experienced guy in a slick suit. She was not intimated.
“She went up against this huge lawyer, she took control of that case,” remembered Brenda.
Al’s age discrimination complaint with the Human Rights Commission led to the appointment of a board of inquiry.
On April 22, 1992, a decision was reached. Al had won.
“He had a determined streak in him,” said his wife, Ellie McKee. “He was a supervisor and he looked after men under him, he took his job very seriously.”
Al wanted to protect these workers and prevent other companies from treating their employees so shabbily in the future even though he stood alone at the tribunal, the other laid off workers were not up for the fight.
Strength and determination is a common theme when speaking to anyone who knew Al.
The settlement he received was significant: $246,362 plus an additional $1,500 for damages, thought at the time to be the largest of its kind in Canada.
In its ruling the board wrote: “It was evident that he was a devoted and valued employee who had performed without any complaint.”
Al received his award the year he turned 65, the mandatory age of retirement in Ontario at the time. He could finally breathe a sigh of relief and told a reporter “I’m sure as hell glad it’s over … it’s been so long and very trying.
“Oh, yes, it was worth it; there’s no doubt about that.”
Al went on to explain the motivation behind so many years of fighting a big company in a clear case of David vs. Goliath, but David won.
“I feel that … if a person is unjustly treated, I believe they should stand up and do something about it,” he said. “Taking a slap in the face and walking away … is not going to correct any problem.”
So how did a humble factory worker end up being responsible for a landmark decision still cited today?
Born one of seven kids to a poor Quebec farm family, his mother’s failing health forced his parents to sell and move to Ontario and a more prosperous future. Al quit school after Grade 9, took farming jobs out West, then he went logging in the bush up north, returning to Niagara where he landed factory jobs before settling with Hayes-Dana. He married his first wife, Donna.
In the early days of working for Hayes-Dana, there were frequent layoffs and Al would take other jobs: driving milk or bread trucks, picking tobacco, cutting trees, whatever was needed to support his family.
The couple raised their kids, Brenda, Brant, Sandra and Douglas, on their Fenwick farm where they grew crops, maintained orchards and raised animals.
Being an outdoorsy guy, after he lost his job they purchased a fishing camp with several cabins on a Bancroft-area property, the site of many happy vacations for his family. After receiving the settlement some of the money was used to fix up the camp but when Donna died of cancer in 1999, Al sold the place.
Then a friend introduced him to Ellie, thinking the widow and widower would hit it off. It was indeed a good match and the couple married in 2005. Al moved into Ellie’s Breslau, Ont., home where he made friends in the community and the two started travelling North America in their little A-frame trailer.
He lived in Merritton for many years before moving to Fenwick.
A celebration of Al’s life will be at Pleasantview Memorial Gardens in Thorold on Sept. 12, at 11 a.m.
‘‘“He felt he had been wronged. He wouldn’t let it go. He pursued different avenues to make it right.” SON-IN-LAW JEFF PATTERSON