By ADAM CLAYTON, Winnipeg Sun
Hundreds of workers are going on strike Monday morning, a move that will delay many of Manitoba’s biggest construction projects.
Members of the United Association Local 254 will hit the picket lines after rejecting a tentative agreement the union had reached with the Construction Labour Relations Association of Manitoba (CLR) on May 10.
About 328 plumbers, steamfitters and welders are affected. They had been working at such job sites as the Canadian Museum for Human Rights, the new Winnipeg airport terminal and a new provincial women’s jail being built in Headingley.
Of the 322 ballots cast at the union headquarters at 34 Higgins Ave. yesterday, 224 were in favour of going on strike and 98 were against.
Heiko Wiechern, business manager with the union local, said he was somewhat surprised by the vote. “I thought it would be close,” he said. “I didn’t expect this.”
The union’s last contract, a three-year agreement, expired May 1 and members approved a strike mandate May 6, he said.
Wiechern said the union hopes to meet with CLR early this week.
“We’re going to give them a list of proposals. We’re hoping to have this resolved very quickly,” Wiechern said of the strike.
The tentative agreement rejected by union members called for a 3% hourly wage increase for each year of a three-year deal, Wiechern said.
Union members say they’re not getting a competitive wage. Negotiators will now be seeking a 6% increase over each year of a three-year agreement. Under the expired contract, the workers made $32.63 an hour.
Other unions are also in negotiations with the CLR, which negotiates collective agreements with trade unions on behalf of the industry’s contractors.
The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 2085 currently has a strike mandate on the table and is apparently still in negotiations with the CLR.
the winnipeg sandbox
Wished it were that simple.
