Striking workers say strike not about money. Elevator workers across Ontario are striking as they can’t come to terms on the language inside their agreement with four major elevator companies.
The dispute is between the International Union of Elevator Constructors (IUEC) locals 50, 90 and 96 and the companies of Otis, ThyssenKrupp, Schindler and KONE.
“It really has nothing to do with the money aspect, we know where the money is going to be,” said Ben McIntyre, business manager of Local 50.
“The language in front of our agreement that affects our members on the staffing levels, the safety aspect, they want to change some two-man work to one-man work. Those are the type of issues which we just couldn’t come to terms on.”
About 1,400 workers are on strike for Locals 50, 90 and 96, with about 800 of those workers located in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA). The locals are involved in the construction and the service and maintenance of elevating devices across Ontario.
Negotiations broke off in the early morning of May 1, the day the contract expired, and there has been no contact between the two parties since. Negotiations had been ongoing throughout April.
“We are disappointed that the IUEC in Ontario has elected to go on strike instead of continuing to bargain with Otis and the multi-employer association,” said Otis in a statement.
“As with any collective bargaining negotiations, it is our intent to reach a settlement that is best for our employees, our customers and our shareholders. We have implemented our contingency plans to support our customers and will continue to follow the process and hope that an agreement can be reached with our employees and the IUEC.”
McIntyre said the IEUC offered that workers would keep working under a retroactivity clause.
“They didn’t want any part in that and they pushed us to where we are today, which is on strike because it looks better for us to be on strike, for them, than for them to lock us out,” he said.
There are currently some companies working under the old agreement with the retroactive clause. About 300 IEUC members are still working in service and maintenance for independent companies in the GTA.
There are around 50,000 elevating devices in Ontario.
The four companies control about 95 per cent of the construction market, especially in the construction for highrise towers and condominiums in Ontario, said McIntyre. The GTA currently has the hottest condominium market in North America.
On May 8, ThyssenKrupp filed a $10 million lawsuit against local 50 for damages. McIntyre believes the lawsuit centered around ThyssenKrupp wanting to remove IEUC’s picket lines from their places of businesses. Both sides were in court on May 10 where they agreed to a consent order. IEUC can picket up to five minutes at some places and up to 11 minutes at others.
“They let us keep our picket lines, we adjusted some times. The lines are still up and running at the ThyssenKrupp locations and the $10 million is kind of still hanging around, we’ll see what happens,” said McIntyre.
The IEUC last went on strike in 1988 for six weeks against two of the major companies.
Follow Kelly Lapointe on Twitter @DCNKelly.
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