A Superior Court Justice has made an interim decision regarding protocol on the picket line between striking local 6500 Steelworkers and Vale Inco.
“He’s just saying the terms of the existing injunction apply,” said Steve Ball, spokesperson for Vale Inco’s operations in Sudbury.
While The Sudbury Star has not obtained a copy of the ruling delivered Saturday afternoon, Ball did comment on Justice Robbie Gordon’s decision: “The interim decision from the court has made it clear that the maximum 12-15 minute delay for any vehicle must be upheld and that we have a right to conduct our business without being excessively delayed or blockaded from doing so. We are therefore satisfied with this interim ruling and expect that we will now be able to continue with our business within the terms of the original injunction.”
As for bussing people onto Vale’s property, no provision exists in the picket line protocol and the Justice did not tackle the issue in his ruling, Ball said.
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The province refused to wade into the driving examiners’ strike Monday as about 200 angry driving instructors – the latest group to call for an end to the 100-day strike – demanded politicians order DriveTest employees back to work.
“We are all suffering these last few months, and it’s not our fault,” said Baldev Gill, a spokesman for the demonstrators.
Ontario’s driving instructors are part of the collateral damage of the labour dispute between the United Steelworkers Local 9511, who represent the 590 DriveTest employees, and Serco DES, the private company that administers driving tests.
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The president of United Steelworkers Local 9511 is at a loss to explain why DriveTest opened its Chatham office Monday.
“I wish I knew the answer to that question,” said Jim Wilson. “If you find out let me know.”
Wilson said there are DriveTest locations across the province that serve a much larger population base than the Chatham location.
Chatham is the latest of eight driver examiner offices to be opened across the province during a 14-week-long strike.
Natalie Maier, owner of Four Seasons Driver Education in Chatham and Tilbury, is convinced she knows the answer.
Maier said it’s DriveTest’s way of “trying to appease us for launching the bus service to Toronto for G-1 students.”
Maier organized a provincewide rally in Toronto yesterday against the strike and spoke at Queen’s Park.
Maier, in prepared remarks given to The Daily News, planned to tell politicians the strike has gone on “way too long.
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OTTAWA
— The Harper government is prepared to introduce back-to-work legislation Monday to end the CN Rail strike, if the two sides don’t reach an agreement.
Sources say the government would like to pass the bill through the House and Senate as soon as possible, providing the Liberals support the move.
Labour Minister Rona Ambrose will hold a news conference to announce the back-to-work bill tomorrow.
A senior official told CTV the government says it can’t allow the strike to continue because of the potential damage to the economy.
About 1,700 locomotive engineers are on the picket lines, while qualified management personal are trying to keep the trains running.
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A strike by Canadian National Railway Co. locomotive engineers threatens a nascent recovery in freight shipments.
Canada’s largest railway, which is seen as a barometer for the economy because the carrier hauls a wide range of goods, finally began to see signs of a turnaround in November.
But a strike that began Saturday by 1,700 engineers comes at a precarious time for farmers, manufacturers and other corporations dependent on CN to move cargo ranging from grain and chemicals to lumber and consumer products.
While the recession may be over for the broader economy, it continues to be a tough time for many companies, said Jean-Michel Laurin, a vice-president at the Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters.
“Everybody’s fighting for every dollar, and we don’t want to see any disruption in rail shipments,” Mr. Laurin said yesterday. “We need everything to be working well.”
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TORONTO — A potential labour disruption could be looming at Canadian National Railway Co. after the country’s largest railway decided to unilaterally impose contract changes on 1,700 of its engineers following 14 months of failed contract negotiations with their union.
The Teamsters Canada Rail Conference (TCRC), which represents the engineers, said it is consulting with its lawyers to determine whether the move is tantamount to a lock-out because it essentially dictates the company’s terms outside of bargaining, said Daniel Shewchuk, the union’s president.
“This could be considered a lock-out,” Mr. Shewchuk said in an interview, adding that the union would consider a strike otherwise. “We can’t just sit idly by and have the company arbitrarily change the terms and working conditions of our members at will.”
A strike could come as soon as this weekend. While CN said it is too early to determine whether such a disruption would shut down much of its rail service, an engineer is considered an essential part of running a train.
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The President of CUPE 3550 (Edmonton Public Schools support staff) is applauding a decision by the Alberta Labour Relations Board declaring Alberta’s Labour Code unconstitutional.
In its decision last week, the board found that the Code’s failure to institute what is commonly known as the ‘Rand Formula’ infringed on the union’s ability to engage in collective bargaining. The ‘Rand Formula’ is the rule that states all employees in a unionized workforce must pay union dues, whether they belong to the union or not. The union, in turn, must represent all employees regardless of their membership status.
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Health-care workers who are members of the Service Employees International Union (SEIUWEST) will be taking a strike vote on the same day their bargaining committee heads back into contract talks.
SEIUWEST, the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), and the Saskatchewan Government and General Employees Union (SGEU) negotiate wages and other monetary items at a common table with the Saskatchewan Association of Health Organizations (SAHO), which bargains on behalf of the health regions.
“We have been able to nail down some dates with SAHO and the health regions. They will be starting next week –Wednesday, Thursday and Friday — and on Dec. 1, 2 and 3 and again on Dec. 9 and 10,” said SEIUWEST president Barb Cape.
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Renfrew driving school lays off driver as backlog grows
Fourteen weeks and counting.
That’s how long 600 DriveTest workers, including Corin Visinski and Doris Price of the Renfrew office, have been on strike. That’s how long Ontarians have been unable to take their driver’s tests, and there’s no end in sight.
After workers, members of the United Steelworkers (USW), Local 9551, voted 78 per cent against accepting the company’s “final offer” Nov. 11, DriveTest announced it would be opening six offices in major centres, including Ottawa, to resume partial service, mainly for commercial drivers.
However, it’s cold comfort for Renfrew-based Ottawa Valley Driving School owner Frank Folkema, who has had to lay off one of his drivers in the face of lagging business because of the strike. “He’s had to go back to truck-driving until this thing clears up,” he said Friday.
“It’s definitely cutting into our livelihood,” he added. “It’s starting to bite now.”
He said his first two driving courses this fall weren’t affected greatly, but with the number of students with G-1 licences drying up, registrations for his next course are down about 50 per cent.
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Roughly a dozen placard-carrying pickets blocked the path of transport trucks at a west-end Kingston property yesterday in a strike by workers who administer driving tests.
More than 500 people who work at DriveTest centres across Ontario, including Kingston, have been on the picket line since August in a dispute with the company contracted by the provincial government to run the centres.
The labour dispute has left thousands of Ontarians unable to take driving tests.
Yesterday, the pickets delayed drivers who were taking road tests in large vehicles, including transports. The tests were being administered by supervisors.
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