There was a glum atmosphere for some workers at the Ontario Northland Transportation Commission Thursday.
Unifor Local 103 did not expect the ONTC to file for conciliation on Wednesday. They are now mulling over why the ONTC wants a federal officer of conciliation to intervene in their collective bargaining process.
On Thursday, employees saw a letter issued by Brian Stevens, Local 103 national representative, who responded to ONTC’s filing for conciliation.
President of Local 103 Andy Mitchell says there is a meeting scheduled for Monday with the ONTC.
About 450 people in Unifor Local 103 work in clerical, stores, rail and bus maintenance, on-board service, the Cochrane Station Inn, customer service, and crew management. Employees work in North Bay, New Liskeard, Englehart, Kirkland Lake, Rouyn PQ, Cochrane, Timmins, Hearst and Moosonee.
Mitchell says the union is trying to get to an agreement. “They negotiated with other groups, why not us? Our division is totally different than the other divisions. We’re setting up a refurbishment shop. We need long-term work in Northern Ontario so let’s do it right.”
Mitchell feels the union has been reaching out more than the ONTC. “We recognize they are developing a plan but we’ve said we want to work with you. They have to prove to us what it is that is required. They can’t just say what they want and we give it to them.”
Mitchell says there has to be a discussion to see that decisions made are the right direction to go in. “That hasn’t transpired. “
Mitchell explains what has taken place since September. “We had gone to the company. We realized the ONTC was going through a transitional period. We knew there would be many decisions and negotiations for our collective agreement. We thought, let’s not put ourselves into a position of a lock-out or a strike. Let’s bargain forward and if we need a mediator we will call one in and we will reach an agreement. We met with the company a couple of times and not that much transpired.”
Workers may not exercise their right to strike and/or companies cannot lockout workers until a notice to bargain has been given; the conciliation process of sixty days has taken place; twenty-one days have elapsed since the end of the conciliation process, a strike vote has been taken, and a 72-hour strike notice or lockout has been given.
Those steps could have workers with Unifor Local 103 fighting for their jobs in September.
