Negotiations between Bombardier and its 1,800 unionized employees in Dorval and the borough of Saint-Laurent are becoming difficult. Their union aims to conduct a strike vote to increase employer harassment.
The two parties failed to reach an agreement at two meetings, Wednesday and Thursday, the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAMAW) said, in a communication sent to its members on Friday.
The union chose not to submit Bombardier’s global offer to its members because wage increases, outsourcing and indexation of retirees ’pensions are still controversial.
L ‘IAMTA presented a counter-offer to Bombardier. He gives her until May 23 to respond. In the meantime, the union will hold a strike vote on May 17.
Holding a strike vote does not mean the strike will be called automatically, the union determined. On the other hand, it will give your bargaining committee the power to use harassment tactics at the appropriate time if we are in a disagreement when the employer comes back to us about our counter-proposal.
At Bombardier, we guarantee the company continues to bargain in good faith to reach a new collective agreement, commented his spokesman, Mark Masluch. It is not possible to have an immediate reaction fromIAMTA.
A few days earlier, both parties seemed to have felt the change in the negotiations. L ‘IAMTA He said he sees progress in the negotiations. Bombardier President and CEO Éric Martel also said he hopes to reach an agreement.
A previous proposal was rejected in April by 99.6% of workers who gave themselves a strike mandate at 98.8%. Bombardier reportedly offered a wage increase of 2.5% for the first year and then 2.25% for the last two years of a three-year collective agreement, the union reported.
L ‘IAMTA felt that the wage offer was not enough to pay for the rising cost of living. In March, the consumer price index rose 6.7% a year in Quebec, according to data from Statistics Canada. It is not possible to know more about the increases proposed by Bombardier in the most recent negotiations.
When releasing its financial results in early May, Mr. Martel said the company would consider inflation in its salary offer. Uncertainty about the level of inflation, however, complicates the formation of an offer, he said. The challenge of a collective agreement is to predict what inflation will be in the second and third years.
Source: Radio-Canada
