The remaining issue in bargaining between the roughly 3,000 inside and outside workers and the City of Hamilton is wages - and the fact is that we are still very far apart from the Employer.
Hamilton is one of the most expensive places to live and inflation is still on the rise. And Local 5167 is very clear that we are not willing to go below a wage that’s reflective of the needs of our members.
This gap between us would be bad enough on its own. But to add insult to injury, we’ve come to learn that the City has increased the wages for managers and non-union staff at a rate higher than they’re willing to offer members of Local 5167.
Clearly there’s money available to pay staff. So let’s be clear: If they’re good enough for a pay increase, so are we.
We would rather not go on strike. We want to continue delivering the services the residents of Hamilton rely on. But we deserve better than this.
We have filed a No Board report and now we have a strike deadline of Monday August 21, 2023, at 12:01am.
We are telling the City that they need to accept our wage proposal because we deserve it in the face of the cost of living crisis; because it would help deal with the staffing crisis; and because it would ensure equality between increases for us and non-union staff/managers.
