Unionized employees of the Irving-owned Halifax Shipyard voted 99 percent in favour of a strike mandate this past weekend.
More than 700 members of Unifor’s Marine Workers Local 1 showed up to a meeting Sunday for an update on their current collective agreement, which expires December 31.
The news wasn’t good.
“After a healthy discussion, a strike vote was held, which resulted in a decisively strong mandate for the [bargaining] committee at more than 99 percent,” reads a statement from Unifor on its website.
The union is claiming Irving requested provincial conciliation after just four days at the bargaining table and then issued “misleading and concerning statements” in media interviews.
The company’s opening offer to the unionized technicians included “33 pages of major concessions” from the union, says Unifor, including the elimination of seniority, break periods and numerous safety measures.
“Their proposals do not reflect improved or modernized working conditions, as the removal of breaks and safety provisions are not improvements.”
According to CBC, the company wants to eliminate the workers’ morning break and instead pay them for an extra 10 minutes at lunch.
Members of Marine Workers Local 1 include metal fabricators, electricians and other labourers working on the multi-billion federal contract for new offshore patrol vessels and warships.
Along with that federal money, the Irvings received $304 million in provincial funding (including a $260-million forgivable “loan”) to modernize its operations and a special tax break from HRM city council because of all the high-paying jobs it was expected to create.
Aside from issues with its collective agreement, the union has also criticized Irving’s continual practice of hiring overseas workers for its Halifax shipyard.
Pending any delays, the Shipyard expects to finish its first ship sometime next year.
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This article appears in Nov 30 – Dec 6, 2017.
Whaddaya know, another greedy union !
Ron Barnaby,
You aren’t qualified to comment on the union’s stance or views regarding this CBA negotiation because you do not work at The Shipyard and therefore you have no knowledge of the facts at hand nor any insight into the daily experience of said union members. Your statement is just speculative yet blind rhetoric, or political rhetoric designed to belittle and troll… probably a little of both. Read the article — safety concessions are being asked for by the company. Safety costs big industry money; any company that wants to cut back safety is greedy. A union that wants to maintain (or improve) current safety standards is obviously nothing more than concerned about the well being of it’s members. Safety is a paramount right of modern workers and shouldn’t ever be compromised (amongst cranes, heavy equipment, welding, steel, fumes, an ever-changing construction site where confined spaces are built, etc).
— Rolly
Let’s not be so hard on poor Ron who clearly doesn’t understand what he read.
Greedy union??? Really? So the fact that Irving gets billions of tax dollars and puts out less product than the order called for isn’t even on your radar eh? Less safe working practices and less breaks….sounds like a real good idea…come on man, get a grip. Not that I’m absolving the unions of wrong-doing, they’re guilty of pushing for unreasonable benefits…it’s in their nature to get as much as they can. We all know that “10 minute” coffee break is at least 30 minutes. Walk from, walk to, stop at the shitter…we all know the routine. IS just wants to keep them on the job longer.