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What's the rush?

THUNDER BAY -- The president of Unifor Local 1075 doesn’t think Bombardier needs to rush to get a completed train car moved out of the Montreal Street plant.
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Workers remain on strike Friday outside the Montreal Street Bombardier plant. (Matt Vis, tbnewswatch.com)

THUNDER BAY -- The president of Unifor Local 1075 doesn’t think Bombardier needs to rush to get a completed train car moved out of the Montreal Street plant.

Dominic Pasqualino on Friday said company officials are scheduled to meet with senior Unifor members on Tuesday to talk about procedures for moving the car to have it shipped to Toronto. The company has to provide the union with 72 hours of notice before moving a car.

However, Pasqualino met with officials of the Toronto Transit Commission on Thursday and was told the car was not immediately required for the unveiling of new cars later this month.

“They said they’re not in a hurry for that car right now. They don’t need it. I think if management is moving it out of the plant they’re either doing it for a payment or they’re trying to provoke the members,” he said.

The cars that were being worked on prior the now nearly three-week long labour dispute are for replacement purposes and would swap out existing cars currently in service.

The company has guaranteed one car to the TTC, which plans to have it go into service on Aug. 31 with others that have already been completed and sent to the provincial capital.

From what he heard earlier this week, Pasqualino doesn’t think the cars are immediately needed for another six to 12 months.

Members of the local Bombardier management team, who are not on strike, have been working on the cars since members of the union walked off the job on July 14.

That is concerning the union president.

“I think there might have been a couple who have worked on the line in the past but most of them don’t have the skills required. I don’t think they even have the basic safe operating procedures for some of these things,” he said.

Among the meeting with TTC officials, Pasqualino also met with a number of parties, including officials with the federal, provincial and Toronto municipal government earlier this week.

He spoke with members of the Liberal provincial government and urged them to enact legislation that would put defined Canadian content regulations on the cars.

There is still no timeframe for when negotiations for a new collective bargaining agreement will resume.





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