Region’s outside workers still on strike after both sides reject offers put on table

The Region of Waterloo and members of CUPE Local 1656’s bargaining team met on Saturday morning. After a couple hours, negotiations failed and no deal was reached.

Several offers were passed back and forth, both sides presented an offer but neither accepted. The strike for the region’s outside workers is now entering week three.

Phil Dominas, the president of CUPE Local 1656, said they went in thinking a fair deal could be reached but were asked to backtrack by their employers.

“We’ve made it clear to them, to come back to the table, they need to honour what they rescinded and they still weren’t there so unfortunately negotiations fell apart again,” said Dominas.

“If you were working and your boss had come up to you and said they’re going give you a raise and its expected, you tell your family about this – the next day you go into work and they tell you they are going to give you half of what we talked about, that’s pretty frustrating.”

The municipality said its offer was rejected by the local union that represents outside workers for the region. The region’s acting CAO, Mathieu Goetzke, said in a release staff do believe that the offer presented to CUPE Local 1656 was “fair and competitive.”

“We recognize that this situation is having an impact on both residents and Regional employees. I want to thank the dedicated Regional teams that are currently working hard to maintain services, safely and in accordance with all legislative requirements,” it reads.

The region added that its goal is for a deal to be reached that supports employees and one that is fair to residents.

CUPE Local 1656 has a rally planned for Wednesday in Kitchener at the ROW Administration Building, ahead of a regional council meeting planned.

Dominas said the members want to get back to work but will be out on the picket lines instead.

“Everybody’s still strong, everybody’s still supportive, spirits are great, moral is great out on the lines. We’ve got a lot of support from surrounding locals as well,” added Dominas.

He said the members aren’t likely to take less then the original offer on the table, adding it is up to regional council to get them back to work.

”They’re the ones now that make the final decision right, they said there is no money.”

The strike is now in week three for the region’s employees that care for things like drinking water, airport maintenance, emergency vehicle maintenance and more.