Union is a waste of resource IMHO.

Everything that union do are pretty much against even the most basic economic theories. They keep costs artificially high and argue that it's for the sake of a better living standard for all.

Nevertheless, all a company would do is to charge customers more in order to compensate for the extra expenses. This is the very same reason why a person making 35k a year in Canada lives at the same lifestyle as a person earning 12k (after conversion) a year in Taiwan, a country where union's influence is much lower.

I'm not arguing which is better, but from an economic perspective, all union did was to manipulate the basic principal of how commercial sector works. Thus affecting everyone outside of the union along with them.

Let's hope Canada/US unions would never expand too far. Argentina is arguably the country where union had the most power. (so much so, they influence political decisions) And they went from an economic superpower in the early 20th century to one of the worst in 21st.

Can someone educate me on unions/strikes?

Let's say this was 6 months ago.
If Ikea and the Union need to sign a contract, that implies that that they do not currently have a contract.
If they do not currently have a contract in place, what prevents Ikea from just not renewing the contract?
There must be some other legally binding agreement or law that prevents them from dropping the union altogether.

Put another way: If they just signed a 10 year deal, after 10 years, can they drop the Union altogether? If not, which agreement/legislation keeps them bound?

It's brand new yes but the Coquitlam one isn't exactly old. In fact they look the same. I don't go to the Coquitlam one and think shit this place is fucking old and needs some reno I rather go to the Richmond one that looks the same.

when will the restaurant open again? need my spicy meatballllz

In 99.9% of the cases, when the current contract / CBA expires, the terms just keep carrying forward until a new contract has been reached. Then, depending on the union, the terms of the new contract may or may not retroactively apply back to the period when the old contract has expired, but the new one hasn't been signed.

So no, most of the time, neither side can just say "fxxk it" and ditch the other party.

LOL, yeah it's only 12 years old, my dad still had his company then and did the interior fit up for walls and ceilings. They are cookie cutter anyway, not much difference from location to location.

I don't understand what legal construct is binding the parties together if the contract has expired.

Typically, there is a clause in the in the current contract that says so. At a minimum, it is pretty much standard across all the public sector union CBAs.

yesss.. bring on the meatballs!