London's inside workers will be hitting the picket lines.
The union representing the 750 workers announced Saturday afternoon that it will begin strike action Monday morning, after talks with the city broke down.
The union claims the talks ended when the city's bargaining team again refused to back off from demands for concessions.
"Once again, this employer has shown that they have no intention to bargain, but to push our members on the picket line," says Shelley Navarroli, president of CUPE local 101. "We had given them an extension because it was clear that the City's decision makers were not listening to our message of 'No Concessions' told to the City representations at the bargaining table."
In a news release issued Saturday morning, hours after the union's strike deadline passed without a deal, CUPE local 101 claimed the city's bargaining team refused to "back away from concession demands," as contract talks went beyond the 12:01am deadline.
The union claims the city's demands include radical changes to the collective agreement’s language on hours of work, contracting out, job evaluation, promotions, and cutting retiree benefits. It says the city also wants the right to schedule employees to work any day of the week.
“Management’s concession demands were just ridiculous, for example they want to have complete control over our members’ lives by having full flexibility to schedule all our members to work 7 days a week, including Saturdays and Sundays when City Hall is not even open,” says Navarroli. “We have always been accommodating of the City’s operational needs and have cooperated with management to schedule staff where services are required over the weekend, like tourism or special events or by-law officers. But when there is no operational need for it, why does management want to take all workers away from their families over the weekend?”
CUPE local 101 represents about 750 workers with the city of London. They're duties include water and waste water administration, financial administration, property standard inspections, bylaw enforcement, tourism, roads construction management social services and IT services.
They've been without a contract since December 31, 2014. Picket lines will go up in front of city hall on Monday morning.