2
Canadian HR Reporter, a Thomson Reuters business 2017
Blood service
workers
deliver 89 per
cent strike vote
TORONTO — Employees
who run blood donor clinics
and transport blood and blood
products across southern On-
tario gave their union bargaining
team a strike mandate on Nov. 2.
Canadian Blood Services
(CBS) support workers voted 89
per cent in favour of strike action
if it becomes necessary to move
negotiations forward. CBS and
the Ontario Public Service Em-
ployees Union (OPSEU) return
to the bargaining table Dec. 12.
The strike vote comes after
OPSEU members rejected a ten-
tative agreement negotiated in
August. Under that agreement,
the union had agreed to settle
future contract disputes at CBS
through interest arbitration, said
the union.
"The ballots have been count-
ed and the members have spo-
ken," said Jennifer Johnson, chair
of the OPSEU bargaining team.
"Listening to what members had
to say about the tentative agree-
ment, it is clear that we still have
issues to iron out."
OPSEU represents more than
850 CBS workers, including
phlebotomists, donor-care as-
sistants, drivers, laboratory as-
sistants and clerks.
Ford security
workers ratify
new contract
WINDSOR, OAKVILLE, Ont.
— Ford plant protection officers
in Windsor and Oakville, both in
Ontario, ratified a new deal on
Oct. 31, by 75 and 82 per cent
respectively.
The new contract follows the
pattern established with Ford
last year during negotiations
with the Detroit Three, and in-
cludes two wage increases of two
per cent over four years. It also
includes provisions around uni-
forms and the creation of full-
time jobs, said Unifor.
In Windsor, this translates to
seven full-time jobs and five in
Oakville, wherein several of the
current supplemental workers
will be offered full-time, perma-
nent positions, said the union.
Workers who are promoted to
full-time will see a $7-an-hour
wage increase, according to Uni-
for.
"We had one particular mem-
ber who has been a supplemen-
tal worker for 18 years and now
will have a full-time job," said
Jodi Nesbitt, Local 240 presi-
dent, representing 20 workers in
Windsor.
Mediator
tabbed in D-J
Composites
lockout
GANDER, N.L. — After 313
days of a lockout of workers in
Gander, N.L., an independent
mediator was appointed on
Oct. 27 by the Newfoundland
and Labrador government to at-
tempt to resolve the dispute at
D-J Composites.
John Roil is a lawyer with
extensive mediation experi-
ence and has served on several
independent inquiries includ-
ing the 2011 Vale inquiry into
the lengthy labour dispute in
Voisey's Bay, said Unifor.
The aerospace workers from
local 587 were locked out by the
employer on Dec. 19, 2016.
In May 2017, the Newfound-
land and Labrador Labour Board
found D-J Composites guilty of
bad faith bargaining. The pro-
vincial labour department has
provided conciliation services
since August, said the union.
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LABOUR LENS
A mother nurses her child at a hospital in Uganda's capital Kampala as a doctors' strike enters its second
day in Uganda, on Nov. 7, 2017.
