Viva workers in York Region reject offer by 75% in labour board-supervised vote

TORONTO, Jan. 17, 2012 /CNW/ - The members of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 113 who have been on strike against Veolia since October 24 have voted  overwhelmingly to reject the company's final offer in a labour board-supervised vote.

177 employees voted today by secret ballot at the Monte Carlo Inn in Vaughan. The vote was 133 to 43 to reject the offer. There was one spoiled ballot.

"At last, York Region Chairman Bill Fisch has to come to terms with the fact that this is not a union-driven decision," said Bob Kinnear, president of ATU Local 113.  Our members voted individually by secret ballot to reject an inferior offer even though they have been on strike for three months. "

"Fisch's tactic of firing one of the contractors in an attempt to intimidate our members did not work.  The timing of the announcement that Fist Student was being fired by the Region is obviously suspect.  We will be serving York Region with an unfair labour practices complaint at the labour board."

Kinnear said that the union has always been willing to negotiate but that it was Veolia that walked away from a union offer to settle in December and have not returned or even responded.

"We have said from the beginning that a neutral arbitration process is the way to go and that still holds true today. We will go back to work tomorrow and arbitrate an end to this dispute if the Region agrees, for reasons that Bill Fisch fails to explain. This is his strike. It would have been over long ago if he had agreed to arbitration when we proposed it in early November."

Bill Reno
416-223-7366