Members of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) Ontario, the province’s largest public sector union, stood shoulder-to-shoulder this afternoon with their private sector counterparts in a show of labour solidarity in support of 61 maintenance and skilled trades employees locked out from their jobs at the Toronto-Dominion Centre.
“Your struggle is ours,” said CUPE Ontario President Sid Ryan, speaking directly to the locked out members of Communications, Energy and Paper Workers (CEP) Local 2003, informally known as the ‘Cadillac Fairview 61.’ Prior to being locked out, the workers provided maintenance and skilled trades support to the TD Centre, which is owned by Cadillac Fairview.
The employer locked the workers out last June, then announced the workers had been ‘terminated.’ Cadillac Fairview has since entered into an agreement with a ‘third-party service provider’ to keep the TD Centre operating.
Through their union, the ‘Cadillac Fairview 61’ have filed a complaint of bad-faith bargaining with the Ontario Labour Relations Board against the employer. The Board has agreed to hear the workers’ complaint, despite numerous attempts by Cadillac Fairview to dissuade the Board from doing so.
CUPE Ontario was joined at the solidarity rally by CEP Regional Vice-President Barb Dolan, Ontario English Catholic Teachers Association (OECTA) second Vice-President Chris Karuhanga, and Steve Craig, a shop steward for CEP Local 2003.
“Shoulder-to-shoulder, we will be at your side for as long as it takes for you to see justice from Cadillac Fairview,” said Ryan.
For more information, please contact:
Sid Ryan, President, CUPE Ontario (416)209-0066
Kevin Wilson, CUPE Communications (416)821-6641