CORNWALL, Ontario – The Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) announced that the local councils in Cornwall who represent unionized employees with the City of Cornwall have set a strike date.
CUPE Locals 234, 3251-01 and 5734 could be on strike as early as 12:01 a.m. on Thursday, May 17. Those local councils represent library workers, outside workers and paramedics.
“The City needs to get serious about negotiating a fair deal with us,” said Alison Denis, CUPE National Representative. “We’re here, and we’re ready to meet. We formally offered them every day except one, between now and the May 17th deadline. This is ample opportunity to avoid a work stoppage if they want to. We hope they take us up on the offer.”
The ability for paramedics to strike is limited by their essential service agreements, but it would mean that there would be only three cars on the road instead of the usual nine covering Cornwall.
Geoff Clarke, General Manager of Corporate Services for the City of Cornwall said in a previous interview that the city did not want to see any sort of work stoppage.
“The City would prefer that bargaining remain exclusively between the parties, and that the City remains committed to the bargaining process and is available and open for further meetings with CUPE,” he said in an emailed statement to Cornwall Seaway News. “We would also like to add the City of Cornwall does not want to see a work stoppage in any form. Our positions remains that we are bargaining collective agreements to meet a fair balance of the needs of the taxpayers, our employees and the Corporation.”
