Frustrated by a lack of action at the bargaining table during a strike in its 16th week, miners from CBM/St. Marys cement manufacturing plant in Bowmanville brought their protest to the company’s Windsor location on Tuesday.

Members of CAW Local 222 — backed by about a dozen local union officials and supporters — slowed cement trucks throughout the day from entering St. Marys’ riverfront Russell Street plant location on the city’s west end for 15 minutes each.

The company is one of Canada’s largest quarry, gravel and cement operations. Almost 90 workers in Bowmanville have been without a contract since Jan. 31 and have been fighting changes to their pension plan.

There have been no talks since the strike started in mid-March. Local St. Marys employees are Teamsters members and not part of the strike.

“What we are hoping to do is get the company’s attention,” said Enzo Vizza, a member of the bargaining committee in Bowmanville who was leading the rally in Windsor. “We don’t want a raise and just hold the contract the way it is.”

Problems with the company started when it was purchased about six years ago by a corporation based in San Paolo, Brazil, Vizza said.

The pension plan of the workers has been defined, so what they were expecting to receive is predetermined. But the corporation is seeking changes that could bump the current prospect of receiving $44,000 annually in retirement to as low as $7,900, Vizza said.

“They say it’s a cultural change and they are going to change the way to do business here,” he said. “We want people across the province to know there are 87 families in real jeopardy in Bowmanville as a result of this foreign company.”

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Navistar workers have made a significant impact and should play a role in the future, said a labour delegation to Chatham- Kent council on Monday.

More than 150 people took part in a march from Canadian Auto Workers headquarters to the Civic Centre to raise awareness on the idled truck-making facility.

Aaron Neaves, CAW Local 127 president, said a grassroots effort is needed to lobby senior levels of government to get involved.

“The Navistar plant is important,” he said. “Too important to let slip away.”

He said the economy is on the upswing with a higher demand projected for heavy-duty trucks.

“We need to ensure our plant and our community take part in this recovery,” he said.

In the 1990s, the Richmond Street facility employed more than 2,000 workers. The plant was idled at the end of June last year when the last contract expired.

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KENTVILLE — A group of municipal workers in Nova Scotia has voted in favour of a strike to back contract demands.

The 46 inside and outside workers with the Municipality of the County of Kings are members of CUPE.

CUPE says they’ve given the union a 91 per cent strike mandate.

The union says the outstanding issues include wages, pensions and retirement benefits.

The last contract expired last Oct. 31.

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Contract talks between Irving Shipbuilding and workers at East Isle Shipyard in Georgetown, P.E.I., have failed to reach an agreement, leaving the union in a position to hold a strike vote Wednesday.

The two sides have been in negotiations since October 2009. The 115 workers will have to decide whether to strike or to accept Irving’s latest offer, which includes a three per cent raise in each of the next three years.

If they vote against it, they will be in a legal position to strike.

A union spokesperson said the workers want a five per cent raise in each of the next three years.

In a recent letter to the union, Irving said that delays caused by a strike could hurt the company’s reputation.

That, in turn, would hurt its bottom line and its ability to pay its workers.

The letter said the shipyard is “operating in very difficult markets,” because its costs are higher than its international competitors, and demand for and sales of the tugboats it builds are low.

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TORONTO– As of 6:30 am this morning, hotel workers at the Novotel Toronto Centre have gone on strike just as members of the G20 French delegation arrive at the hotel, which is run by the French company Accor.

“We’re a small group of workers who are just trying to maintain decent jobs with this global giant,” said Rik Hockley, a Banquet Server and member of the bargaining committee at the Novotel Toronto Centre. Approximately 80 workers have walked off the job after hotel management walked away from negotiations on Tuesday without even addressing an offer put on the table by UNITE HERE, the union that represents hotel workers.

“Their shameful conduct in these negotiations is apparent for the world to see, “says Paul Clifford, President of UNITE HERE Local 75. “After sitting on our proposal for a month, they finally tabled their first and only proposal on Tuesday and then walked out the door at 5:00 pm. That is not collective bargaining by anyone’s definition. The labour dispute at this hotel is entirely due to Accor’s heavy handed bungling of negotiations.”

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The United Food and Commercial Workers (CFCW) union is seeking a strike mandate after conciliation talks with more than 100 Loblaw-owned stores in Ontario broke down.

It is understood that the major barrier to a settlement is Loblaw’s demand for wage and benefit cuts at the conventional Loblaws and Zehrs stores and concessions at the large format Real Canadian Superstores and Great Food stores.

A spokesperson for the union told just-food yesterday (23 June): “On June 18 the company informed the union it would not move from its demands for wage and benefit concessions. The bargaining committees of all four UFCW Canada Local unions were unanimous in rejecting this position as unacceptable.

“As such, the conciliation talks aimed at reaching a new labour agreement covering nearly 30,000 members of UFCW Canada …broke off with no progress towards a settlement.”

Further conciliation talks scheduled for the week of 5 July have been cancelled, the union said, adding that it is requesting a “no-board” report from the Minister and will be conducting strike votes around the province beginning the same week.

Talks are expected to resume the week of 19 July with a mediator from the Ministry of Labour, CFCW said.

Julija Hunter, vice president of public relations for Loblaw said it is “hopeful” that the union will continue to negotiate.

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Unionized workers at the Novotel Toronto Centre say they’ll walk of the job Thursday morning after contract negotiations broke off Tuesday night.

The talks faltered as the hotel on The Esplanade continued preparing for the upcoming G20 summit. A French delegation is expected to stay there during the meetings.

However, the union representing 80 workers at the hotel said Wednesday that a strike now appears inevitable.

“I’ve never seen so-called bargaining like this,” Paul Clifford, president of Unite Here Local 75, said in a written statement emailed to the Star.

“We prepared and presented a fair and reasonable offer addressing all of the union’s previously outlined concerns and requests,” said Eric Buitenhuis, Novotel Canada’s vice-president of operations, said in a statement.

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Unionized hotel workers and the Novotel Toronto Centre are negotiating Tuesday in an effort to avoid a strike just before the G20 summit.

The 80 workers at the Novotel on The Esplanade plan to strike Thursday if an agreement isn’t reached, according to the union.

A French delegation is expected to stay at the hotel during the G20.

“We are fighting for good jobs, jobs that will enable you to feed your family and put a roof over your head,” Rik Hockley, a Novotel banquet server and union steward for Unite Here Local 75, said in a written statement.

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Conciliation talks between United Food and Commercial Workers and more than 100 Loblaw-owned stores in Ontario have broken down, and talks scheduled for July have been cancelled, the union said Monday, adding that strike votes would take place over the next three weeks. Four UFCW locals represent nearly 30,000 workers at Loblaws, Zehrs, Real Canadian Superstores, Great Food and Fortinos, all subsidiaries of Weston-controlled Loblaw Cos. Ltd., Canada’s largest retailer.

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CAW Local 4207 members who work at Wescast Machining in Wingham, Ontario have overwhelmingly rejected a forced final offer from the company.

The workers voted 78 per cent against the company offer in a ministry of labour supervised vote. The membership also voted 94 per cent in favour of a strike, if needed.

CAW Local 4207 represents 88 members at the Wingham facility, which machines exhaust manifolds. The contract expires June 30.

Local 4207 President Mark Goetz said parts workers like those at the Wingham plant face increasing pressure from all sides in an industry that is undergoing a major restructuring.

“Our members work hard to make quality products and deserve fair and equitable compensation for the dedication they show the employer,” Goetz said.

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