York Region update: Viva walks away from bargaining table after union lowers expectations twice
TORONTO, Dec. 10, 2011 /CNW/ - After nearly seven weeks into the transit work stoppage in York Region, ATU Local 113 and Viva (Veolia) management came together on Saturday morning with the assistance of a provincial mediator. Talks broke down on the issue of how much the employees should pay for their own health care benefits package.
Local 113 made the first move early in the morning by changing its bargaining position to bring it closer to the company's previous final offer, which had been unanimously rejected by the membership just before the October 24th strike commencement.
The union lowered its wage expectations to 2.7% in the first year, 2.8% in the second and 2.9% in the third, as well as dropping some other issues. Of primary importance to the union, however, was the health care benefits package. Viva bus operators currently pay half the cost of their benefits, about $6.95 per day for family coverage. Full employer coverage of health care benefits is standard in the rest of the GTA public transit sector, which is what the union was seeking.
Viva management responded with a four-year deal calling for a 3% wage increase in the first year and a total of 10% over the full four years.
The union responded by offering to take a lower wage increase (2.6%) in the first year of a three-year agreement and a total wage increase over the life of the agreement of only 8.1% to help offset the company's move towards incrementally assuming the full cost of the benefits package by 2013.
Viva abruptly ended the talks before noon by refusing to respond to the union's new proposal.
"It is important to point out that the union made the first move towards getting a settlement, and it was a substantial move for our people," said Bob Kinnear, president of Local 113. "We then dropped our proposal once again but the company walked away.
"We would still be paid about seven dollars an hour less than transit workers in surrounding communities and our benefits package and sick days would continue to be sub-standard. But we would like to end this strike so that York Region can get moving again."
"The difference between the union's offer and the Veolia's demand for more concessions would be invisible on the balance sheet of this multi-billion dollar French-owned company," said Kinnear. "But family health care benefits are very important to our members with children, which is most of them, so they were willing to take lower wages today in return for a fully-paid benefits package by 2013.
"We've done everything we can to try to settle this. Veolia's attempts to squeeze the health care of their employees' families is as inexplicable as it is offensive," said Kinnear.
"It looks once again like the only way this is going to get settled is through arbitration. We'll go back to work tomorrow if the company agrees to this."
For further information:Bill Reno, 416.223.7366.