FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 30, 2008
Union Urges Council to Vote on Expert Mediator’s
Settlement Proposal
OTTAWA, Ont. - Amalgamated Transit Union, Local 279 President Andre Cornellier today proposed that Ottawa’s City Council hold a public vote on accepting the expert federal mediator’s settlement proposal.
President Andre Cornellier stated:
"The City is trying to use obscure parts of the legislation to have the Minister force a vote on an offer that has already been nearly unanimously rejected by our members.
We think City Council should be held to the same standard they are suggesting for us, we think a public debate and vote by Council is in order.
This Mayor has had few wins in his time in office, for him this dispute is about saving his floundering political career.”
Cornellier added:
“It took a joint union-management committee a full year to put the existing schedule together – Larry O’Brien and Alain Mercier drop a whole new system on the table on the eve of this dispute. They provide us no answers to our questions on how it works – they want us to trust them.
The federal mediator suggested the parties set the scheduling issue aside for joint study during the term of the collective agreement.
Reasonable heads have prevailed on Council in the past, it’s time for those reasonable heads to take control of this and follow the recommendation of the expert federal mediator.”
The Union notes that, even if the system were changed to reflect all of the City’s demands,
it would not be implemented unit late 2009 resulting in minimal savings to the City
during the term of this collective agreement.