Elevators grounded as strike drags on

A strike by Ontario's 1,400 elevator repair workers is having an impact in Sudbury, including at Pioneer Manor, a city-owned long-term care facility.

Katelyn Theriault, a registered nurse who works at the Manor, said in an email one of the facility's main elevators has been down for more than three weeks.

“At first it didn't seem like a big deal, but it has since grown to be a huge inconvenience for the staff, visitors, and, most importantly, the residents who greatly depend of the elevator services,” Theriault said. “On a busy day, it takes over five minutes for the only working elevator to come — if it comes at all due to the high demand ...

“Thank goodness we still have one functioning elevator. Nonetheless, this has caused a huge inconvenience.”

The strike began May 1, when the three unions representing elevator repair staff walked off the job for the first time since 1998. The vast majority of the striking staff work for the Otis, Schindler, Kone and ThyssenKrupp elevator companies.

Ben McIntyre, business manager for International Union of Elevator Constructors, Local 50, said this is his fourth round of negotiations and he's never seen anything like it.

“The issues are certainly not monetary,” said McIntyre, whose Toronto-based local also represents workers in Northern Ontario, including 18 in Sudbury. “Every time they give us a target, when we hit that target, it moves.”

McIntyre said the union offered to continue working under the old contract while negotiations continued, but that offer was refused. He was under the impression that the outstanding issue was contract language the union was proposing.

“Then we removed that language on Thursday of last week, and we still didn't get a deal,” he said. “At this point, we don't know what they want – other than they don't want us to be working.”

In a news release May 31, the National Elevator Escalator Association agreed that the sides have an agreement on wages, increasing the current elevator mechanic wage of $112,000 a year to $121,000 a year.

The sticking point is a modification to seniority rules that management wants to bring in, the release said.

“In order to improve safety, training and improved product knowledge, NEEA is proposing that the industry move from industry seniority to individual company seniority,” the release said.

“Currently, the elevator and escalator industry is the only construction trade in Ontario that allows workers to carry seniority between different employers.

“This practice was arbitrated into the collective agreements in Ontario, Alberta, Nova Scotia and B.C. in the mid-1970s. Since then, in the provinces other than Ontario, NEEA and the union have agreed to either eliminate, grandfather or move seniority to separate collective agreements.”

There are about 54,000 elevators in Ontario. The strike comes at a particularly tough time in Toronto, where a building boom has led to a surge of demand for elevators in high-rise apartment and office buildings.

There are currently no plans for the sides to meet.