More than 15K carpenters across Ontario on strike, construction delays expected

Industrial and commercial construction projects across Ontario will be impacted after workers with the Carpenters District Council of Ontario walked off the job on Monday.

The Union’s President Mike Yorke tells CityNews that approximately 15,000 workers began their strike at 12:01 a.m after they overwhelmingly rejected the latest offer from their employers in the industrial, commercial and institutional (ICI) sector.

He says the strike could affect a number of transit projects, including work on the Eglinton Crosstown LRT line. Hospitals are also expected to be impacted but he says there will be no effect on residential construction.

“This particular strike has nothing to do with the residential marketplace,” says Yorke. “There may be other trades within the residential sector that are out on strike.”

UPDATE: Carpenters across the province are now on strike. President of Carpenters District Council of Ontario confirms for @CityNewsTO & @breakfasttv more than 15,000 workers have walked off the job as of 12:01am after overwhelming rejecting employer’s latest offer. pic.twitter.com/lvhzivsSZp

— Tammie Sutherland (@citytammie) May 9, 2022

Yorke says pickets will be set up at multiple locations across the province, including one at The Well at Spadina Avenue and Wellington Street in downtown Toronto.

“This project is one of the largest, if not the largest, mixed-use project in Canada,” says Yorke, regarding The Well development. “We will be picketing here.”

The major sticking point between the workers and their employer is wages. Yorke says carpenters continued working on job sites to build critical infrastructure throughout the pandemic and because of spiraling cost of living increases, the union and its members believe that their pay must be increased.

“We’re getting the message out there to the industry, and the other trades,” says Yorke. “The carpenters are standing up for working people and to try to get a better cost of living assessment in the middle of this crisis in our country.”

“Cost of living is through the roof.”

He says the union is eager to get back to the bargaining table with their multiple employers with hopes of resuming discussions by the end of the week.

NDP leader Andrea Horwath is blaming Bill 124 for capping wages for provincial employees in a number of sectors. The legislation put forth by the Ford government in 2019 limits salary increases for public sector employees at one per cent.

“Doug Ford’s low-wage policy is having a ripple effect through the jobs economy,” says Horwath in a statement. “There are tens of thousands of construction and trades workers from three unions now off the job.”

Bill 124 caps salary increases for public sector employees at one per cent.

High-rise construction workers in the GTA also walked off the job last Sunday, citing similar issues. Members of LiUNA! Local 183 include around 15,000 house framers, high rise forming workers, tile installers, carpenters, and hardwood installers.

A union spokesman says all high-rise sites across the GTA are shut down as a result of the striking workers.

With files from Tammie Sutherland