1/7/2024 0 Comments Gearcity workers strikeThe strikes are taking place amid a construction boom. Almost half live and work in the Greater Toronto Area. There are about 570,000 construction workers in Ontario, many of them workers who have emigrated to Canada relatively recently. The contracts of the many unions involved expired April 30. The following week 15,000 members of the carpenters’ union joined the strike. About 6,000 operating engineers, who operate cranes and other heavy machinery, struck at the same time. On May 1, 15,000 residential skilled workers walked off the job paralyzing high-rise and low-rise housing construction. The strike is the largest in the residential construction industry in over 20 years. Workers said the proposed wage increase agreed to by the bosses and union officials would be more than wiped out after the first year of the contract. However, in the middle of negotiations the federal government agency Statistics Canada released its monthly inflation numbers, reporting a 6.7% increase in March alone, a rise from 5.7% the month before. Contractors had agreed to raise pay over a three-year contract by a total of 9.5% in the Toronto area and 9% in the rest of Ontario. The strikes began after workers in several of the bargaining units voted down new contract agreements with the construction bosses. On May 11, 8,000 members of the painters’ union voted overwhelmingly to give union negotiators a strike mandate. Other workers are threatening to join the strike movement. They are fighting for higher wages in face of galloping inflation. This brings the total on strike as of May 14 to 43,000. Over 7,000 residential and commercial drywall workers downed their tools, joining the ongoing strike of 36,000 Ontario construction workers.
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