Black River-Matheson municipal workers reject contract, now on strike

Following a 15-week lockout, municipal employees with the Township of Black River-Matheson, Ont., are now officially on strike.

Members of CUPE Local 1490, which represents full-time employees with public works, recreation and some accountants,rejected a proposed contract from the municipality, with 13 votes against itand three votes in favour of the new terms.

At issue for the union is what it's calling a "two-tier" wage system, which would place new employees on a lower pay grid than existing workers.

In the existing system, a new employee has a probationary wage for a year before reaching the full rate for the job.The proposed grid would have five steps with a four per cent increase each step, before the worker reaches the full job rate.

Serge Bouchard, president of CUPE Local 1490, told Radio-Canada the proposed grid would lower starting pay for new hires by $2 an hour.

Bouchard said it's already difficult for the city municipality to attract employees in public works when nearby mines pay higher wages.

"This is just gonna put that bigger gap and it's just we're just not going to get the right people in," he said about the municipality's proposal.

Black River-Matheson Mayor Doug Bender said the municipality's proposed contract represented the most it could offer without raising taxes further.

"So basically, if we don't want to increase taxes any higherthan we have to just to keep our basic services operating, we've reached a point where we've maxed out the amount of money that we can put on the table."

Bender said under the proposed contract, employees would have received a 14 per cent pay increase over four years.

"And there were even options in there for them to decide how that 14 per cent was spread, slightly adjusted based on year one through four," he said.

Bender said the municipality negotiated contracts with a local contractor for road maintenance, and the local recreational facility has been able to keep running thanks to help from volunteers.