Air Canada’s baggage handlers, ground crews and maintenance workers on Wednesday rejected a tentative deal signed earlier this month with Canada’s biggest airline, shortly after its dispatchers ratified a new contract.
Workers represented by the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers voted nearly two thirds — 65.6 per cent — to reject an earlier deal that gave them wage, benefit and other increases.
That vote came a day after the carrier said its 74 flight dispatchers based near Toronto Pearson International Airport had backed the new contract that expires in 2016.
Read More:
A negotiated severance package for 465 unionized workers from London’s closed Electro-Motive Diesel plant could be ready for ratification by Thursday.
The Canadian Auto Workers and Caterpillar Inc., Electro-Motive’s parent company, have been in discussions all week, trying to hammer out a final settlement after the company shut down the plan Feb. 3.
The workers were locked out on Jan. 1 after the company wanted pay cuts across the board – some as much as 50 %.
CAW Local 27 president Tim Carrie said Sunday that it will take “a couple more days” to wrap up the discussions.
“We were hoping it could have happened (today) but we’re not just there yet,” he said.
A meeting is scheduled for Thursday at the Marconi Club where Carrie said he is “cautiously optimistic” that a recommendation can be made to the membership.
Read More:
Locked-out members of Syndicat des Métallos d’Alma Local 9490, the United Steelworkers (USW), took their fight against Rio Tinto Alcan to Québec’s largest city, last Friday, 17 February, where Alcan CEO Jacynth Côté was part of a spurious forum on youth in employment, sponsored by the Board of Trade Metropolitan Montréal.
Some 200 of 780 metalworkers from Alcan’s Alma aluminium smelter in the Saguenay-lac-Saint-Jean region, Québec, boarded buses and travelled 460 kilometres to Montréal for a noisy protest at this business luncheon, their first manifestation away from the 488,000-tonne-per-year smelter. They were joined by another 100 steelworkers from Montréal, and some 100 college students who joined the USW rally in mocking protest to a future youth theme that now sees business teaming with the Liberal provincial government of Québec to raise their university tuition fees.
Read More:
Caterpillar employees in London, Ont., will get a better idea of their severance packages on Friday, after a bitter battle over the Electro-Motive locomotive factory’s closure.
The CAW and the plant planned to give an update on the status of severance talks.
The factory announced two weeks ago it was shutting its doors, affecting about 500 workers.
Tim Carrie, CAW Local 27 president, said negotiations for a closure agreement have been difficult, but there’s progress.
“There’s no doubt that the campaign that we’ve had between labour and the public itself has caused Caterpillar to recognize that they can’t leave town just based on the minimum standards,” said Carrie. “The issue becomes just how much more than the minimum standards.”
Read More:
OTTAWA — Air Canada (TSX:AC.B) and the union representing its pilots have agreed to extended mediation and the government expects them to hammer out a new deal, Federal Labour Minister Lisa Raitt said Wednesday.
Raitt told the House of Commons she’s received official agreement from both the union and the airline they will participate in the six-month process.
“I am very grateful for the work that they are going to put in,” Raitt said. “We expect them to get a deal.”
The pilots have given their union an overwhelming mandate to call a strike and the airline is in a legal position to impose a new contract or lock them out.
However, both sides have said they will not use those options while talks continue.
An earlier, two-month effort by a representative of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service was unable to bring the two sides together.
Read More:
The St. Jude Hotel and the NL Liquor Corporation have been named the 2011 Employers of Distinction Award winners by the Newfoundland and Labrador Employers’ Council. The awards ceremony took place yesterday afternoon at the Sheraton Hotel, where outside, disgruntled trawlermen handed out their own “awards” aimed at Ocean Choice International. Former provincial cabinet minister Loyola Sullivan, who is connected to the company, was the guest speaker at yesterday’s event. Among the protesters were trawlermen who are embroiled in a labour dispute with OCI. The trawlermen were locked out by the company, which then brought in replacement workers to crew the “Newfoundland Lynx”.
Read More:
A one-day walkout by health support workers in Edmonton has ended and AUPE has agreed to send the contract dispute with Alberta Health Services to binding arbitration, health officials announced late Thursday afternoon.
“Staff involved in the wildcat strike should be back at work within two hours,” said Chris Mazurkewich, chief operating officer and executive vice-president with Alberta Health Services.
The agreement between AUPE and AHS guarantees that workers will not be disciplined or face legal action for walking off the job on Thursday.
In a news release, AUPE President Guy Smith called on workers to return to work immediately to “ensure they are protected.”
Hundreds of service workers at Edmonton’s Royal Alexandra Hospital started their strike at 7 a.m. Thursday. They were followed by about 40 workers at the University of Alberta Hospital and others at the Northeast Community Health Centre.
Read More:
It’s not the outcome that the FFAW wanted, but replacement workers called in by Ocean Choice International successfully crossed the picketlines of locked out workers early this morning on Water Street in Bay Roberts. The Newfoundland Lynx has since set sail.
Rumours started around midnight that the bus with replacement workers was coming back to Bay Roberts. Almost instantly a relatively calm night became busier and tensions began mounting among the picketers. RCMP moved in more members with a two-line formation of officers down the entrance to Moorfrost. The bus arrived just before 2:00 with a large police escort, and workers stood across the street not letting it go by. Almost two hours later, the bus made its first move forward but was stalled again. Shortly before 4:30 the bus began moving forward, and the Mounties started arresting people. The bus stopped in front of the entrance, police lining up in front, as the replacement workers got off, running down towards the Newfoundland Lynx, as the striking workers looked on.
Read More:
With pilots calling a strike vote, disappointing earnings, and a competitor launching a regional airline, Air Canada is getting battered from all directions.
As the airline reported lower than expected fourth-quarter earnings due to higher fuel and maintenance costs on Thursday, the pilots’ union asked members for a strike mandate.
It’s the latest labour uncertainty for the airline, which faced repeated strike threats last year including a brief three-day walkout by its customer-service agents.
Air Canada’s president and CEO Calin Rovinescu told analysts on a conference call Thursday that the company is prepared to negotiate beyond the 12:01 a.m. Tuesday deadline, and it won’t impose any contract in the “short term.”
The union has fired back that it offered to push back the deadline until April 2 — and not hold any strike vote until late March — but it was rejected.
Read More:
TORONTO, February 9, 2012/MILTON, ON- AFI International, North America’s leader in crisis management and response, is pleased to announce that Desmond Taljaard, its national vice president of operations and security services, has been selected as the sole representative for the CSIS at the Provincial Review of Training Regulations for the security industry.
Taljaard was appointed by the society based on his extensive experience and impeccable industry credentials. Prior to joining AFI, he held many high level security roles both in Canada and abroad, including operational air marshal for an international airline, police hostage negotiator and detective inspector in Internal Affairs with the South African police service. Mr. Taljaard has also taught in the Police and Public Safety Institute at Algonquin College in Ottawa and is an active member of the CSIS national capital region chapter.
Read More:
