Petawawa – GDI Services, the company that is contracted by the Department of Defence to provide cleaning services at Petawawa’s Canadian Forces Base has walked away from negotiations with their workers.
After months of frustrating negotiations, GDI Services has been reluctant to address many of the concerns raised by its workforce. The majority of the workers earn wages slightly above minimum wage and have recently lost all their paid sick leave, due to the rollback of the Employment Standards Act.
“GDI is a multi-billion-dollar international company that is taking money from families in Petawawa,” says Sharon DeSousa, PSAC Ontario Regional Executive Vice-President. “They have failed to honour the last negotiated contract and now have walked away from further negotiations.”
The workers are also dealing with a reduction in their health and safety provisions of their agreement and have not seen their wages increase, despite the employer having signed the last contract obliging them to do so.
“Since this employer isn’t interested in meaningful negotiations, we have started strike preparations,” states Ms. DeSousa. “A strike vote was held on May 8th with overwhelming support for strike action if GDI doesn’t come back to the table.”
For more information or to arrange interviews, please contact:
Lino Vieira, Political Communications Officer, vieiral@psac-afpc.com or 416-577-0238