Canadian Labour Reporter

lAboUr brieFs 2 Canadian HR Reporter, a Thomson Reuters business 2014 Unifor lambastes safety protocol in talks with Brinks OTTAWA — Unifor Lo- cal 4266 — representing 130 Brinks Canada workers in Ot- tawa — has a 99 per cent strike mandate as it enters media- tion. According to the union, the safety of armoured car crews leads the agenda as contract talks with Brinks reaches a critical juncture. "Safety for armoured car guards and drivers is a prior- ity because they have so many violent attacks. It is what our members are demanding," said Andrew Desjardins, president of Unifor Local 4266. "When armoured car guards and driv- ers are safe that also means im- proved public safety." Talks between Unifor Local 4266 and Brinks will head to mediation on Sept. 29 and 30, with a strike or lockout date of Oct. 1. A letter from the company, included with the last contract negotiated three years ago, committed to refrain from the use of "all-off crews" during the life of the agreement. In all-off crews, no guard is left in the armoured car while money is being delivered or picked up. According to the union, Brinks has refused to renew the letter in the new contract. "All-off crews are less safe. They get robbed more," Des- jardins said. "If the company is not planning to use all-off crews, it should be willing to put that in writing." Age, not gender, leads new income gap TORONTO — Of late, a recent shift in the labour market has seen a new trend emerge in the income divide — age, rather than gender. According to a report — The Bucks Stop Here — released by the Conference Board of Cana- da, income inequality between the generations has ramped up significantly. In it, the indepen- dent research group pointed to three decades of progress in re- ducing the income gap between men and women — but warned the widening chasm between younger and older workers that could threaten future economic growth and social stability. "Age, rather than gender, is becoming the new divide in our society," said David Stewart- Patterson, the board's vice pres- ident and co-author of the re- port. "The Canadian generation at the top of the income heap today fought long and hard for principles like equal pay for work of equal value, but their children now face lower wages and reduced pension benefits even for the same work at the same employer." As such, relative to their el- ders and over the past 30 years, younger workers are making less money, regardless of be- ing a man or woman, single or a couple, and both before and after tax. Of course, it goes without say- ing that the more experience, the more pay you'll pocket. However, the average dis- posable income of Canadians between 50 and 54-years-old is currently 64 per cent higher than that of 25 to 29-year-olds — up from 47 per cent in the mid-1980, the report noted. As the baby boomers march closer to retirement, Canadi- ans will be relying on a smaller share of the population to drive economic growth and sustain the tax base that supports pub- lic services. As a result, younger Canadians are trailing dust, Stewart-Patterson said. "This is a trend that could have serious consequences for employers, for labour unions, for governments and for com- munities," he explained. "If the earnings of younger workers continue to lag, we also could see growing conflict within our society between older haves and younger have-nots." But the gender gap is far from closed. The size of the income divide between generations was bigger for men, but has been growing faster among women. Between 1984 and 2010, the gap in employment income for men grew from 53 per cent to 71 per cent, while for women it increased a whopping 34 per cent — from 9 per cent to 43 per cent. The report complied 27 years of income tax data. United Auto Workers' president Dennis Williams has organized the Volkswagen plant in Tennessee, alongside two German unions. FORMeRlY Clv RePORTS Serving labour relations professionals since 1956 www.labour-reporter.com Published weekly by omson Reuters Canada ltd. Subscription rate: $595 per year Customer Service Tel: (416) 609-3800 (Toronto) (800) 387-5164 (outside Toronto) Fax: (416) 298-5106 email: carswell.customerrelations@ thomsonreuters.com Website: www.carswell.com director, Carswell Media Karen Lorimer Publisher John Hobel - On leave Acting Publisher/Managing editor Todd Humber news editor Sabrina Nanji | (416) 649-9348 sabrina.nanji@thomsonreuters.com news editor Liz Foster | (416) 298-5129 liz.foster@thomsonreuters.com Marketing Co-ordinator Travis Chan | (416) 609-5872 travis.chan@thomsonreuters.com © 2014 Carswell, a division of omson Reuters Canada Ltd. All rights reserved. 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