Strike deadline
extended
for support
workers
SCARBOROUGH, Ont. — Af-
ter 14 hours at the negotiating
table, the employer and Settle-
ment Assistance and Family
Support Services (SAFSS ) and
Ontario Public Service Employ-
ees Union (OPSEU) Local 518
agreed to extend the strike dead-
line to midnight Oct. 18.
Negotiations resume Oct.
17 and bargaining team chair,
local 518 president Valentina
Khoudiakova, is optimistic.
"We've made ourselves very
clear to the employer. We will
continue to fight for a fair deal."
SAFSS workers held a picket
outside of head office to support
their bargaining team at the ta-
ble, and were joined by a number
of other OPSEU members.
Negotiations have spanned
18 months for the 48-member
local. Key demands are ending
an eight-year wage freeze and
reinstating benefits which the
employer had suspended dur-
ing a statutory freeze when no
changes to contracts are permit-
ted, according to the union.
OPSEU members at SAFSS
provide a variety of services for
recent immigrants.
Deal rejected
by workers:
Old Port of
Montreal
MONTREAL — The Old Port
of Montreal said it is dismayed
by the results of the vote held on
Oct. 5 by unionized employees
who rejected the agreement in
principle.
The agreement had been ac-
cepted by both parties and en-
dorsed by the union and would
have allowed all employees to
return to work.
The Old Port's employee
union had accepted the proposal
subsequent to a bargaining blitz
undertaken with the mediator
assigned to the dispute.
The agreement provides for
a 12 per cent wage increase over
five years as well as a one per
cent annual indexation on salary
structures and increased leave for
part-time employees.
It also included the Old Port's
initial offer to form a joint com-
mittee in partnership with the
union to analyze the overall com-
pensation of unionized jobs as
compared to the market, said the
company.
AUPE,
Carewest ratify
agreement
CALGARY — Almost 160 Gen-
eral Support Services (GSS)
members represented by the
Alberta Union of Provincial Em-
ployees (AUPE) at Carewest pub-
lic care facilities across Calgary,
ratified a three-year collective
agreement.
The agreement — retroactive
to 2014 — mirrors the arbitra-
tor's ruling awarded to Alberta
Health Services' GSS staff in July,
according to the union.
The agreement will see Care-
west GSS members receive a
wage increase of two per cent
in the first and second years and
one per cent in year three. Mem-
bers will also see an increase to
their flex health spending ac-
count, according to the union.
AUPE is Alberta's largest
union with 90,000 members
provincewide.
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