CUPE has filed an unfair labour practice complaint against the City of Windsor over its negotiations with CUPE 82 and 543.
The 29 page complaint describes the challenges of bargaining with the City whose negotiators and city councillors’ behaviour has almost certainly prolonged - if not caused - the strike, now in its second month.
Some of the allegations:
- Windsor’s mayor and two councillors made offers on post retirement benefits at a hallway meeting, May 18. The union came back to the table with a compromise of its own, but the City only re-tabled its initial demands.
- Windsor’s mayor has misrepresented the union’s position on job security and rescinded agreement on job security provisions.
- The city reneged on picket line protocols agreed to with the union and instead demanded more restrictive protocols, reneged on its commitment to maintaining access to health benefits and made further restrictions on lawful picketing a condition of continued negotiations.
- The city has on several occasions leaked information to the media that it had agreed to embargo about bargaining proposals.
“The locals have made many attempts to resolve this labour dispute but they can no longer negotiate with themselves, the media and people who have no authority to resolve this dispute,” CUPE Assistant Regional Director Linda Thurston-Neeley said. “The behavior of some of the City employees and some of the elected members makes it impossible for us to continue discussions.”