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Workers at Carmeuse Lime in Beachville, Ontario have ratified a new collective agreement by 76 per cent, ending a difficult 13-week long strike.
The new contract was approved at a membership meeting on April 18. The contract includes wage and pension increases, dramatically limits mandatory overtime and changes to hours of work, in addition to other improvements, according to National Representative Fergo Berto.
“It was a long, hard and cold fight, but the support we received from other Unifor local unions and other unions in the area was incredible,” said Jody Slade, Unifor chairperson at Carmeuse Lime. “Our members held strong for the future – without their support, we would not have been able to resolve many of the issues that we did.”
Unifor Local 3264 President Rick Cecchin conveyed his appreciation to the locals and members across the country who donated to the strike. “Without their help, the struggle would have been much harder.” In particular, Cecchin mentioned Local 88 in Ingersoll who lent their support in many ways. “Our members are happy to be going back to work – it was a long winter.”
The strike began on January 17. Unifor Local 3264 members will be back on the job as of April 25. The previous collective agreement expired on March 31, 2014.
Approximately 87 members work at Carmeuse extracting lime shore from the open-pit mine, which is turned into lime and used in a variety of consumer products.
