Friday, January 9, 2009

Union soundly rejects City's offer

After voting for 14 hours yesterday at the Civic Centre, ATU 279 voted down the City's proposed offer in quite staggering proportions:

There is no end in sight for the longest transit strike in the city’s history after the no vote garnered 75% support. However, 320 workers didn’t cast a ballot

Of 2,353 eligible voters, 1,516 — or 64.4% — voted no.

So after the final tally, 86 per cent of the union voted and three-quarters of those members voted 'no'.

The Ottawa Sun story continues:

The vote strengthens the union’s hand and means city officials might have to rethink their negotiating tactics to get buses back on the road.

It's not clear how likely it is that the City will "rethink" their strategy, because council was completely united before the vote and have never indicated that they will go any further with concessions.

The Ottawa Citizen led today's edition with its coverage of the vote.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well, then I'd say call the union on their core point. They say this is about scheduling not money.

Then give them scheduling, and either write in a wage freeze or a rollback and give them none of the other demands.

Have them put their money where their mouth has been.

Anonymous said...

I have to like how the Sun structured their headline. Not 75% vote No, but 64% of eligible voters vote No. To make the number look less convincing.

Who uses "eligible voters"? I mean, nobody leads a headline saying "22% of eligible voters voted for the Conservatives"

Anonymous said...

Isn't it 75% of eligible voters voted No, and 64% of those who actually voted, voted No?

Nick said...

Eligible voters -- 2,353
Total votes -- 2,033
Total non-voters -- 320
No votes -- 1,516

1,516 members, or 75% of those who voted, rejected the offer.

But that is 75% of the 86% of union members who actually cast a ballot.

So, in the end, the Sun is not wrong to suggest that 64.4% of union members actually rejected the offer.

Anonymous said...

Those who are not senior drivers but voted NO are hopelessly too stupid to understand the contract and what's good or bad for themselves, they had to be bottle-fed by the Union.

I always believed, UNTILE NOW, that as long as they are qualified to do the job they are paid to do, their education does not matter.

When they attended in large number the "information session" (it's really misinformation session), it only proved that they are unable to read the contract and make up their own mind.