SAULT STE. MARIE — The Carpenters District Council of Ontario has announced that a tentative agreement in the ICI sector (Industrial, Commercial, Institutional) has been reached with various employer bargaining agencies across Ontario.
The Carpenters Union has been on strike since May 9 in the ICI sector after its members overwhelmingly voted down a prior tentative agreement.
Since that date 15,000 carpenters have been on picket lines in numerous Ontario communities.
Approximately 250 skilled tradespeople with United Brotherhood Of Carpenters & Joiners Of America are on strike in the Sault.
About a dozen local projects have been affected by the strike.
“It’s all to do with wages,” a strike captain told SooToday May 9.
“Our members have continued to work however, in other sectors not impacted by this ICI strike such as residential, the Electrical Power Systems Construction Association and maintenance, some of which have already ratified collective agreements for their respective sectors,” the union said in a release.
Ratification votes for the ICI tentative agreement will take place around the province on Friday May 27 with a final tally on Friday afternoon.
A condition for this to be ratified province-wide requires what is known as a ‘double majority’ which is a majority of locals (of 14), and a majority of members voting must vote acceptance.
“We worked diligently with our respective employer groups and have fashioned an agreement that reflects the current economic affordability crisis and one which we believe the members in Ontario will accept and ratify,” said Mike Yorke, CDCO president in a release.
“Construction is too important an economic driver in this province for us to be too long on strike and without an agreement,” Yorke said.
Construction is a huge economic driver in Ontario worth almost $60 billion annually, accounts for 7.2 per cent of GDP and employs over 600,000 workers around the province with another 600,000 in spin-off jobs.
The Carpenters District Council of Ontario is composed of 16 affiliated local unions (14 in the ICI sector) of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners across the province.
It represents approximately 30,000 women and men working in a wide range of skilled trades, including carpentry, drywall, resilient flooring, concrete formwork, underwater construction, welding, scaffolding and a long list of other construction related work.
