WINDSOR – Employees of the Roseland Golf and Curling Club’s dining room voted Monday night (December 10) to support a strike if their union, the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) Local 2945, is unable to bargain satisfactory improvements to their union contract.
Their employer, Aramark Canada Ltd., is offering one per cent raises in the first year of a three-year contract, 1.5 per cent in the second year, and 2 per cent in the third year.
“Who in this day and age would agree to an 8 cents an hour raise?” says Ken McClelland, a CUPE staff representative. “They expect the Roseland waitresses to be happy with a whopping 36 cents an hour over three years. Wage increases for the other staff would be similar. It is not surprising that employees who attended the strike vote meeting voted unanimously in favour of giving their bargaining committee a strike mandate.”
CUPE Local 2945 has met twice with Aramark negotiators. “We filed for conciliation when we realized we were not getting anywhere,” says McClelland. “Aramark is proposing wage increases that do not even come close to covering for inflation. To add insult to injury, we now have overwork problems at Roseland because there are fewer employees .
“The employer is refusing to address our modest proposals. We are seeking decent wages, and some improvements to vacation and holiday time. We also want some improvements for the part-time staff, who do not get benefits, and we wanted to address the workload crisis.”
Conciliation talks between the two parties have been scheduled for December 18.
Roseland’s dining services were contracted out to Aramark this year. The club is owned by the City of Windsor. Workers who are represented by CUPE include bartenders, waitresses, cooks, custodians, and kitchen helpers.
The Canadian Union of Public Employees represents 180,000 workers across Ontario, many of whom work for municipalities, school boards, hospitals, and social service agencies.
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Contact:
Ken McClelland: 519-966-9595
Shannon McManus, CUPE communications:
416-292-3999, ext. 222