THUNDER BAY --100 employees at Avenue II Community Program Services in Thunder Bay "narrowly" voted to reject a tentative deal on a new collective agreement.
The vote, conducted last Friday, sets the stage for a disruption of services effective September 29.
The workers, who support people with developmental disabilities, have been without a contract since the end of March last year.
Avenue II Executive-Director Suzann Doherty says she's "deeply disappointed" that the membership did not accept its own bargaining team's recommendation to accept a deal that she characterizes as "the final proposal of OPSEU's bargaining team" made during negotiations..
In a statement, Doherty said OPSEU has confirmed that the workers will go on strike this coming weekend.
As a result, she said, Avenue II is now focused on contingency planning for the provision of care to its clients during the strike.
OPSEU, in a statement of its own, said the issue that led to the narrow rejection of the package—despite the fact it was recommended by the union's bargaining committee— was fairness for workers in the lowest-paid "casual" job classification.
Spokesperson Silvana Cacciatore said "A $100 lump sum payment in the first year of the contract and a 10-cent-an-hour raise in the second year doesn't keep up with the cost of living."
Casuals currently earn $16.60 an hour.
According to Cacciatore, the issue could be ironed out in minutes with a return to mediation in advance of the lockout deadline of 12.01 a.m. on Saturday.
However, she said, a mediation meeting scheduled for Tuesday was cancelled after management withdrew its agreement to participate.
Now, instead of mediation, the union will rally for an information picket on Tuesday during the noon hour outside the Avenue II offices on South Cumberland Street.
