Following a strike vote supported by 97.5% yesterday, unionized employees of the Bombardier Aviation unit are being asked to send “a clear message” to their employer by stopping working overtime next Monday.
Last week, Bombardier submitted to the union a global offer that the association declined to show to employees, because wage increases, outsourcing and indexation of retirees ’pensions are still controversial.
The union filed a counter-offer which is currently being reviewed by the employer. A meeting is scheduled between the two parties on Monday to conclude negotiations.
On the Bombardier side, spokesman Mark Masluch said via email Wednesday morning that the company continues to bargain in good faith to reach a new collective agreement.
Earlier this month, Bombardier’s management said it hoped to reach an agreement with its 1,800 unionized employees in Dorval and Saint-Laurent.
An earlier 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.
The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers felt that the wage offer was not enough to offset the rising cost of living.
During the unveiling of its financial results in early May, Bombardier president and chief executive Éric 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
