Petawawa – Cleaners at the Canadian Forces Base in Petawawa are now on strike after a disappointing meeting with the employer and conciliation officer held on July 24th. During this meeting the employer, GDI Services, continued to demand many of the concessions that led to our members voting to take strike action to begin with.
“We had offered to meet with GDI for as many days required over this two-week period and they responded with one meeting date, the day before the strike deadline,” says Sharon DeSousa, PSAC Ontario Regional Executive Vice-President. “This shows they had no intention to negotiate fairly or to avoid a strike.”
The state of negotiations had been overshadowed by the fact that GDI failed to honour the last contract it signed. PSAC is currently pursuing legal means through the Ontario Labour Relations Board over this breach of GDI’s commitments.
Despite raking in record profits of over a billion dollars, GDI is demanding these workers fall further behind by seeking outrageous reductions to Health and Safety provisions, staffing, employment standards protections and many others.
“GDI has been preparing for a strike by placing ads for replacement workers, all while playing lip service that they respect their cleaners,” states June Winger, National President of the Union of National Defence Employees. “We know the community of Petawawa stands behind their people and we will take a stand against this greedy Montreal-based employer.”
For more information or to arrange interviews, please contact:
Lino Vieira, Political Communications Officer, vieiral@psac-afpc.com or 416-577-0238