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Canadian HR Reporter, a Thomson Reuters business 2019
Locked-out
ABI workers
reject off er
BÉCANCOUR, Que. —
Locked-out workers from the
ABI aluminum smelter in Bé-
cancour, Que., voted by an 82
per cent majority on March 11 to
reject the company's unilateral
contract offer.
The vote came after 90 per
cent of the workers — locked out
for 14 months — held a meeting
to discuss the ABI offer as well as
a proposed return-to-work pro-
tocol. Members of three separate
bargaining units within United
Steelworkers (USW), Local 9700
rejected the company's offer,
said the union.
"The offer represented a series
of take-backs by the company.
ABI has refused to negotiate, it
has refused to accept third-party
arbitration. It just wanted to im-
pose its will, counting on fatigue
from by its 14-month lockout,"
said Clément Masse, USW, Lo-
cal 9700 president.
While only two issues were in
dispute when ABI locked out its
employees on Jan. 11, 2018, the
company added to the list 4saof
concession demands with its lat-
est offer, which called for mul-
tiple concessions, said the union.
ABI's offer also was
accompanied by a unilateral
return-to-work protocol, which
had not been the subject of any
discussion between the parties.
The company proposed that
locked-out employees would
return to work gradually, over a
period of at least 10 months and
possibly longer, during which
time managers and contract
workers would take the jobs of
regular employees, said USW.
Employees in
Powell River/
Nelson, B.C.
join CUPE
POWELL RIVER/NELSON,
B.C. — The Canadian Union
of Public Employees (CUPE)
welcomed 27 new members
from Powell River and Nelson,
both in B.C., following two
successful votes.
CUPE 476, representing K-12
workers in Powell River, B.C.,
brought two IT workers into
their local.
These members had worked
alongside CUPE K-12 mem-
bers for 25 years — initially as
contractors, — before being
absorbed into excluded staff,
said Aileen O'Keefe, CUPE 476
president.
Following a vote, the Labour
Relations Board also granted
CUPE 3999's application to vary
their certification to include 25
workers from Nelson CARES
Society at Stepping Stones
Emergency Shelter.
First deal for
Flemingdon
Health Centre
workers
TORONTO — United Food
and Commercial Workers union
(UFCW) Canada, Local 175
members at Flemingdon Health
Centre in Toronto ratified their
first collective agreement on
March 4.
The 90 workers employed by
Flemingdon provide commu-
nity health-care services at three
locations in Toronto.
The parties reached the agree-
ment after more than 45 days of
bargaining over the last year and
a half. This included conciliation
to issue a "no-board report,"
and to assist in the last days of
negotiations, said the union.
The first contract contains
language to bring the employees
closer to Ministry of Health
wage guidelines, with the
understanding that as new fund-
ing becomes available, it will be
applied to raise wages even fur-
ther, said UFCW.
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