Workers At Sears Warehouse In Vaughan Locked Out For More Than A Month
Posted May 13, 2010 2:58 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Hundreds of Sears warehouse workers in Vaughan who’ve been locked out for more than a month plan to stay on the picket line as long as it takes to get back to the bargaining table, their union says.
Talks between the retailer and the United Steelworkers broke down in late March, prompting the company to lock out 500 workers at its Vaughan warehouse on Highway 50, just north of Rutherford Road, on April 1st.
Sears is demanding changes to the collective agreement that would put workers’ pensions, health care benefits and vacation entitlements in line with the rest of its workforce. Union and staff representative Terry Bea claims those changes include rollbacks and “basically would give them the right to change our compensation package and our working conditions whenever they felt it was necessary to do that.”
The union claims Sears Canada is “riding the coattails” of the recession to pare down workers’ benefits.
Managers and some replacement staff are filling in for the locked out workers, Bea said.
Sears walked away from the bargaining table on March 23 and it hasn’t responded to requests to once again engage in negotiations, the union claims.
A spokesman from the provincial Ministry of Labour told CityNews.ca an appointed mediator has had regular contact with both sides.
“Sears basically said, well this is how it’s going to be, and if not, then we have nothing more to talk about and chose to lock the members out,” Bea said.
Sears Canada spokesman Vincent Power cited the company’s long history of good relations with its employees and said it put a decent offer on the table.
“We believe we put forward a proposal to the workers that’s fair and equitable with the rest of the employees across Canada and we’re pretty far apart on where they’re aligned to that,” Power said.
“We have 30,000 employees across Canada. We’re trying to be competitive with the retail sector in Canada and to do that we have to align our benefits and … our policies with the retail sector.”
The director of the USW’s District 6, Wayne Fraser, has called on consumers to stop shopping at Sears while its workers remain locked out.
“We continue to picket the warehouse and the union will continue to try to get back to the bargaining table,” Bea said.
“We’re willing to stay out as long as it takes to get a good and fair deal.”
shawne.mckeown@citynews.rogers.com
