Negotiators for striking frontline, administrative and support staff from the Children’s Aid Society of the Region of Peel (Peel CAS) will today hold ‘exploratory discussions’ with Peel CAS to determine if there is a basis to resume negotiations to resolve the six-week-old labour dispute.
“If Peel CAS comes to this meeting with a genuine willingness to negotiate and is prepared to actually listen to what’s being said across the table, then I am confident the two sides can find common ground, said Sonia Yung, President of Local 4914 of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE 4914).
The 435 members of CUPE 4914 walked off the job September 18 after negotiations to secure a new collective agreement broke down.
Yung said that, while the union’s bargaining committee is prepared to “stay as long as it takes to achieve a negotiated settlement, we can’t achieve that goal on our own. There needs to be another party equally willing to negotiate across the table.”
Should bargaining resume between the two sides as a result of these exploratory discussions, a further update will be provided.