Tentative deal reached with National Steel Car workers, union says
CBC
After seeing more than a month of strike action, National Steel Car reached a tentative deal with its workers, a union official said.
"We believe we've achieved something fair," said Frank Crowder, United Steelworkers Local 7135 president.
"Obviously, we all would expect and want more but we believe that we've actually achieved what we were looking for. The numbers we received are very, very close to what we were asking, which was for the company to meet inflation," he told CBC Hamilton Monday.
Workers took strike action on June 29 to demand higher wages and improved safety from the railcar manufacturing company, said Crowder in early July.
According to Crowder, there will be an approximate of 13 per cent wage increase over three years, with six per cent the first year, four per cent the second and three per cent the third year.
An early offer posted by the company on July 5 offered a 10.33 per cent increase over three years.
Crowder said all previously agreed to items that workers asked for were included.
"There was some language cleanup that we were opposing that the company has chosen to remove, which is beneficial to us," he explained.
"We received an additional dollar in the defined benefit pension plan. So now we're receiving one dollar in the first year, one dollar in the second year and one dollar in the third year to increase our pension."
Items included before the strike were a change in wording to dental benefits that allows workers to be paid on the Ontario Dental Association's schedule as supposed to a year prior, increases to food allowance, safety glasses, and more, according to Crowder.
Crowder also said, however, workers wanted three full-time health and safety representatives — as supposed to the current one — but got two, and added the union believes having three representatives is more appropriate to the amount of work that needs to be produced.
"That's probably the biggest thing that we're disappointed about," he said.
"We believe that safety is a major factor with National Steel Car and we would have liked to see, to have that manpower to make sure that safety work is done appropriately."
CBC Hamilton reached out to National Steel Car for comment but did not hear back before publication.