Labour Relations
Bargaining - Unifor Local 103
In an effort to ratify an agreement, Ontario Northland has tabled its last offer to Unifor Local 103 and
has requested the union bring the offer to the membership for a vote.
The offer:
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A fair and balanced approach – meets needs of employees and the company.
A 5-year term.
Alignment with other ONTC union agreements.
Wage increases in Years 4 and 5.
Skilled trades adjustment in Year 3.
Agreement 12: Trade flexibility that will allow the Remanufacturing and Repair Centre to
compete more effectively for business opportunities.
Agreement 1, 4, 5: Minor updates to work rules.
Statement
Over the past several weeks we have been working very hard with the Unifor bargaining committees to
negotiate new collective agreements for ONTC employees that are represented by this
union. Unfortunately, our talks ended today without an agreement.
In an effort to resolve all outstanding matters, we have today, tabled revised final offers for the
employees represented by Unifor. These offers are significantly different from the offers we tabled over
a month ago. We have listened and made significant changes in the areas of contracting out and hours
of work. The final offer includes proposed wage increases for all Unifor employees, as well as lump sum
payments that would be provided immediately and again in January 2016. In addition, we have
proposed a wage adjustment for our skilled trades employees. The changes to benefits in the offer are
fair and align with other unions in our workplace.
We have asked Unifor to present our offers to their members for a vote and we have asked them to
advise us of the outcome of the vote by the end of the day Monday. At this time we will not be asking
the Minister to conduct a supervised vote. We are relying on the goodwill of the union to present the
offers to their members.
In the interim we have not locked out our employees. We are hopeful that our employees will accept
these contracts and we can avoid any work stoppage.
We remain very encouraged about our future prospects at Ontario Northland and look forward to
revitalizing and transforming our operations with the assistance of all of our employees. We are
strengthening Ontario Northland to ensure our employees have secure, long-term employment so we
can continue to provide vital transportation services to our region, in addition to remanufacturing and
repair services for railway companies across North America. It is time to conclude negotiations and focus
on improving our organization.
Corina Moore
President and CEO
Timeline
Dec 31, 2013 – All five agreements expired
Jun 17, 2015 – Employer filed for Conciliation for Agreement 12
Jun 29, 2015 – Unifor Local 103 filed for Conciliation for Agreements 1, 4 and 5
Sept 21, 2015 – Legal strike/lockout date
Oct 5, 2015 – Request for vote submitted to federal Minister of Labour
Oct 26, 2015 – Request withdrawn to initiate momentum at the bargaining table
Oct 28, Oct 29, Nov 5, Nov 6, 2015 – Most recent bargaining dates
Nov 6, 2015 – Final offer and request for membership to vote on offer