Petawawa – Cleaners at the Canadian Forces Base in Petawawa will be in a legal strike or lockout position as of 12:01 a.m. on July 25, 2019, after their union requested a No Board report from the Ministry of Labour.
GDI Services, is the company that is contracted by the Department of Defence to provide cleaning services at the Base. There are many issues to resolve with this employer before a strike can be averted, including:
- GDI has failed to pay 2 scheduled pay increases ((January 1, 2019 and May 1, 2019), in breach of the signed collective agreement.
- GDI is seeking rollbacks to Health and Safety provisions, staffing, employment standards protections and many others.
- GDI continues to violate the Collective Agreement and has had supervisors performing bargaining unit work.
- GDI cancelled the 2 paid sick days previously legislated by the Liberal government, leaving the workers with no paid sick leave.
“Given that this employer has been bargaining in bad faith by breaching the terms of the previously signed collective agreement, we are doubtful that they are interested in reaching a fair agreement,” says Sharon DeSousa, PSAC Ontario Regional Executive Vice-President. “For an employer whose revenue is in the billions, it is shameful that they have taken away paid sick leave and failed to honour the pay raises they committed to.”
There is one scheduled meeting date between the Union and GDI on July 24th, a day prior to the strike deadline.
“If they do not come with a serious offer on this day then our picket lines are going up July 25th,” states June Winger, National President of the Union of National Defence Employees. “These workers deserve respect and they are prepared to take strike action to get it.”
There are 83 cleaners in this Local, which are represented by the Public Service Alliance of Canada’s, Union of National Defence Employees (UNDE Local 639) Component.
For more information or to arrange interviews, please contact:
Lino Vieira, Political Communications Officer, vieiral@psac-afpc.com or 416-577-0238