CUPE files unfair labour practice complaint against the City of Cornwall

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by HAVEN HOME HEATING & AIR CONDITIONING Breadcrumb Trail Links

Published Sep 07, 2023  •  Last updated Sep 08, 2023  •  3 minute read

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The Canadian Union of Public Employees filed an unfair labour practice complaint with the Ontario Labour Relations Board last month after reaching a point of frustration in renegotiating a contract with the City of Cornwall.

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The complaint was filed on Aug. 24, and pertains to the contract renegotiation for Local 234, which includes the so-called outside workers in departments such as infrastructure, municipal works, parks, and recreation. This contract includes positions such as machine operators, mechanics, skilled labourers, plow operators, pool attendants, and rink attendants. Wages for most positions in the previous contract, which expired on March 31, 2021, sit in the $22 to $31 per hour range.

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The last time CUPE met with the city was on Aug. 21, a bargaining meeting the union walked away from mid-afternoon claiming its negotiators could not continue to bargain given how the city’s negotiators have responded in their communication with CUPE and their conduct during bargaining sessions.

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“The employer is withholding its proposals while allowing the union to present its proposals. The union, despite repeated efforts, is unable to get the city to table proposals. When the city does table proposals, they are retracted and replaced with inferior proposals. This is counter-productive to bargaining and significantly impedes the ability of parties to reach a negotiated agreement,” reads the CUPE complaint. “The union is unable to make any decisions or effectively bargain when it cannot be certain whether or not the city proposes changes… or what those changes may be.

“The employer has not made ‘every reasonable effort’ to bargain.”

After it filed the complaint, CUPE Local 234 held a strike vote in the last week of August, where it said 97 of 100 members of the local voted, with 98.9 per cent voting to strike.

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The complaint includes 24 appendices with copies of emails exchanged between CUPE and the city’s negotiators. It shows the parties had recently been discussing and exchanging proposals on a list of topics, including licence renewals, hours or work, scheduling, overtime and overtime banks, paid holidays, vacation, public holidays, and mileage. An hours of work proposal sent by the city during the bargaining session on Aug. 21 appears to be the exchange that led to CUPE walking away from the table and filing the complaint.

In an email sent to the city, Raven Law LLP’s Alison McEwen, who is the lawyer for CUPE Local 234’s bargaining team, outlined the proposal on hours of work sent by the city during bargaining on Aug. 21 was worse than one provided several days earlier and not as complete. She also noted the union was still awaiting complete responses and proposals from the city on other issues the parties agreed to discuss.

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“We cannot and will not return to the bargaining table without a full set of counter proposals from the city,” McEwen wrote. “This means bargaining cannot continue until we have the finalized versions of the counter proposals from the city in hand.”

CUPE sent its notice to bargain the new agreement back on Jan. 4, 2021. Dates were set for bargaining this past January, given delays attributed to the COVID-19 pandemic and the need for the union to fill vacancies on the local’s executive committee. Only one date was held, on Jan. 4, with the city cancelling two others that month.

Dates were scheduled for February, but later cancelled by the city. The two sides met again on April 24, April 27, and May 3, but another date in May was cancelled by the city. A bargaining date on June 26 was cancelled after an agreement by both parties.

Heading into the summer, the two sides met on July 18 and Aug. 21. Prior to talks breaking off on Aug. 21, the parties had agreed to meet on Oct. 10-22, and Nov. 2-3.

A request was made to the City of Cornwall for comment on CUPE’s complaint and strike vote, which was not received by Friday’s print-edition deadline.

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