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We have provided notice to both the company and federal conciliator that the membership of Local 2215 at IMP Aerospace have rejected the company’s final offer and voted to take strike action effective Friday.
It is our hope the company will reconsider their final offer and provide a revised offer for the bargaining committee to consider. As of Wednesday morning, this has not happened.
We spent all of Tuesday confirming the logistics and preparing for the pending strike on Friday morning. We have picket captains in place and members will be assigned to their picket captains mostly based on the hangars and work locations where they are currently scheduled. There are some exceptions to this as there are other locations that we intend to picket, and picket captains will all be provided with this information.
All members are required to perform picket duty in order to receive strike pay. Local 2215 leadership attended a recent meeting where we voted to increase strike pay by an additional 20% - this will go a long way in helping our members on the picket lines. Strike pay will now be $300 per week and is effective from the first day of the strike, it will take us roughly a week to have the first cheques delivered as we have to verify the lists of all those who are showing up for their picket duties.
We will be holding a special meeting for picket captains and then roll out the information to the membership. We will work with all members who are currently being accommodated in the workplace to ensure they have picket duties they are able to perform. There are lots of duties to perform to keep the picket line operating.
Strikes can be very jarring and emotional for our members who are only seeking a fair agreement, so we remind everyone to be extra considerate and respectful to one another. This will be a challenging road ahead as we fight for respect from IMP.
We remind everyone that some companies use aggressive tactics during strikes and we have seen IMP do such things at our other facilities like Cascade. So please be vigilant to report any issues to your picket captains so we can respond quickly.
Also, please ignore any information that is circulating that has not been provided to you by the bargaining committee. If it has not come from us it should be considered a rumour.
We have the strength and solidarity of 315,000 Unifor members from coast to coast to help us through, and they’ll do whatever it takes to get us to a fair agreement.
Thank you to all for your continued support.
Unifor Local 2215 Bargaining Committee
