Canadian Labour Reporter

1 Canadian HR Reporter, a Thomson Reuters business 2014 MARCH 24, 2014 LABOUR BRIEFS Women struggle to find jobs in Toronto — and it's not getting better / Job availability drops in 2013: StatsCan . . . . 2 COLLECTIVE AGREEMENTS • Hotel Grand Pacific, Victoria, B.C. Free meals for kitchen staff . . . . . . . . . 3 • West Wind Aviation, Saskatoon, Sask. Flexible statutory holidays . . . . . . . . . . 4 • Loomis Express, province-wide, British Columbia. $200 lump sum payment. . . 4 • Co-op Atlantic, Truro, N.S. Education fund for staff . . . . . . . . . . . 5 • McGill University, Montreal. 1.97 per cent wage hike for invigilators . . . . . . . 5 • Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John's, N.L. Three-week vacations . . 5 ARBITRATION AWARDS • Nurses, province back to bargaining table after bad-faith complaint thrown out . . . . 6 • Canada Post employee goes postal over parking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 ON LABOUR-REPORTER.COM Blackberry fires 120 workers in Waterloo, Ont., as part of the latest round of layoffs and fast food workers in the U.S. sue McDonald's over alleged wage theft. Visit www.labour-reporter.com for daily news stories. Follow us on Twitter @labourre- porter. And don't forget — all collective agreement summaries on labour-reporter. com now include links to the full agree- ment. UPCOMING ISSUES Seasonal temporary workers in Quebec are now able to join a union. Short-term employment contracts that depend on seasonal conditions, however, has employer groups questioning what a collective agreement might look like. In our upcoming issue, Canadian Labour Reporter finds out what's next for agricul- tural workers in Quebec. | by LIZ FOSTER | CHRySLER'S REFUSAL TO be used as a "po- litical football" could become a fumble for the province of Ontario. In a statement that blindsided govern- ment officials, the automaker announced its intention to withdraw all requests for financial assistance in the develop- ment of assembly plants in Windsor and Brampton, Ont. Chrysler plans to develop and indus- trialize its next minivan in the Windsor location while the Bramp- ton facility is scheduled to benefit from a substantial product intervention on the Chrysler 300 and Dodge family of products it cur- rently produces. More than $3 billion could have been invested, said Unifor's national pres- ident Jerry Dias. As much as $700 million of that was expected to be provided through govern- ment financial assistance. Chrysler has not confirmed the num- bers, saying only that it would be the company's biggest investment in Canada since the recession. In February, Ontario Progressive Con- servative leader Tim Hudak accused Ser- gio Marchionne, chairman and chief ex- ecutive of Chrysler Group LLC, of holding the provincial government for "ransom" by requesting financial assistance. "It is clear to us that our projects are now being used as a political football, a process that, in our view, apart from be- ing unnecessary and ill-advised, will ulti- mately not be to the benefit of Chrysler," the company said in its statement. "As a result, Chrysler will deal in an unfet- tered fashion with its strategic alterna- tives regarding product development and allocation, and will fund out of its own resources whatever capital requirements the Canadian operations require." The automaker con- firmed the Windsor and Brampton plants will con- tinue to build its flagship minivan and sedans, re- spectively. But the decision to walk away from finan- cial assistance has many worried the company will soon look outside of Cana- da for its industrial needs. "It has to be salvaged," Dias said of the talks between Chrysler and the pro- vincial and federal governments. "Think of the jobs that are impacted. There's a half a million jobs in Ontario tied to the auto sector. And it's not just the direct jobs, it's the indirect jobs. That's why ev- ery country in the world is clamouring for a strong auto sector, because of the significant impact." Chrysler calls foul on 'political football' Automaker withdraws requests for government's financial assistance PM #40065782 Continued on page 7 "Every country in the world is clamouring for a strong auto sector." IN THIS ISSUE

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