Canadian Labour Reporter

FEBRUARY 3, 2014 2 Canadian HR Reporter, a Thomson Reuters business 2014 Unions react to recent armoured car robbery OTTAWA — Unifor is calling for a meet- ing with Canada's public safety minis- ter Steven Blaney in the wake of a re- cent armoured car robbery in Toronto. An armoured car crew was robbed at gunpoint on Jan. 20, just outside Toronto's Fairview Mall. A bullet hole was reportedly found in one of the ar- moured car's windows in addition to shell casings and bags of cash scattered on the ground outside the vehicle. "In light of the recent robbery of a two-person crew… you will appreciate my urgency in setting up this meeting with you," Unifor national president Jerry Dias wrote in a letter to Blaney. Dias is calling for a task force on the armoured car industry to carry out comprehensive policy research and de- velop recommendations and legislative guidance. He is also calling on the minister to meet with the union as Unifor rep- resents 2,000 workers in the armoured car industry. Another union is urging patience. "The safety of this industry's work- ers is an issue we've been working on it for a while now," said Teamsters Canada Armoured Car director Jim Chalmers in a statement. "But I think it's better to wait for the results of the police investigation before drawing hasty conclusions." Chalmers said the Teamsters Union has been working with Blaney and his staff for some time in an effort to iden- tify and resolve safety issues in the ar- moured car industry. "We're going to continue our close collaboration to improve the safety of our members and, of course, the gen- eral public," he said. "In the meantime, we're going to provide support to our two members who were involved in the exchange of gunfire." The Teamsters Union represents close to 2,000 workers in the armoured car industry. Transit strike averted in Thunder Bay THUNDER BAY, ONT. — The wheels on the bus will continue going round and round in Thunder Bay, Ont., after tran- sit drivers reached a deal with the city. On Jan. 19, the Amalgamated Tran- sit Union (ATU) Local 966 reached a tentative deal with the City of Thunder Bay, narrowly avoiding a strike. Tran- sit workers would have been in a legal position to walk off the job the very next day. "The deal was achieved through a lot of patience and negotiation. We had a marathon situation on our hands," said Sheila Kivisto, president of the lo- cal ATU chapter. "We were at the bar- gaining table for 28 hours straight. We did it for our riders." The union will now turn its attention to collective bargaining for city staff operating Lift Plus — the specialized door-to-door transit system the town acquired this year. Almost 40,000 job openings lost in October OTTAWA — Canada lost almost 40,000 job vacancies in October, according to numbers recently released from Statis- tics Canada. In October 2013, there were 231,000 job openings across Canadian business- es — a decline of 37,000 compared to October of 2012. For every job vacancy, there were 5.7 unemployed people, whereas in the previous year, there were only 5.1 un- employed people per job opening. The drop in vacancies declined at a faster pace than the decline in the number of unemployed people, the Statistics Canada report noted. The national job vacancy rate at the end of October 2013 was 1.6 per cent, down from 1.8 per cent in 2012. FORMERLY CLV REPORTS Serving labour relations professionals since 1956 www.labour-reporter.com Published weekly by Thomson Reuters Canada Ltd. 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If legal or other expert assistanceis required, the services of a competent professional should be sought. The analysis contained herein represents the opinion of the authors and should in no way be construed as being either official or unofficial policy of any governmental body. ISSN 0045-5113 Publications Registration 2089 Canadian Labour Reporter is part of the Canadian HR Reporter group of publications. Visit www.hrreporter.com for more information. canadian labour reporter Labour Briefs A look at labour news from across Canada. For regular news updates, visit Canadian Labour Reporter at www.labour-reporter.com

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