The head of the union representing Hamilton Street Railway (HSR) workers says there’s still “a long way to go” between themselves and the city in hammering out a deal to halt a looming work stoppage.
Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) Local 107 president Eric Tuck says there are still a couple more bargaining sessions scheduled ahead of a planned meeting with his workers in November to decide what to do if there’s no new deal.
“I can tell you that we’ve been talking and had several meetings over the last 10 months, basically, and I still don’t feel that we’re there yet. We still have got a long way to go,” he revealed.
A strike or lockout is now a reality with just over two weeks left in a countdown started with the city’s receipt of a formal no-board notice from the Ministry of Labour, requisitioned in late September to speed up a potential agreement.
The city says it received the notice from the ministry on Oct. 8.
Over 99 per cent of the ATU’s members are in favour of a strike should a deal not be reached.
Tuck says as of this week there are no thoughts of walking due to additional discussions with negotiators earmarked for Oct. 23rd and 25th.
“We have not set a strike date at this point,” the ATU’s Tuck said Tuesday.
“We will be meeting with our members on Nov. 5th to discuss next actions if we do not have a collective agreement. But we’re hopeful that we can get there.”
The ATU represents some 880 HSR transit workers, including drivers and mechanics, and has been working without a collective agreement since December 2022.
Wages, safety and light rail transit (LRT) job protections are the key issues, with the union pointing to double-digit increases it says senior city administrators recently received from the city.
Hamilton avoided a strike by municipal workers in mid-August by coming to a deal last-minute with some 3,200 employees represented by the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE).
Prior to that, the city secured a deal with some 1,100 non-union staff and managers, giving a four-per cent wage increase across the board with additional flexible adjustments between one and 11 per cent.
Tuck says his members are seeking something similar, factoring in cost of living increases of seven and four per cent to compensate for inflation over the past two years.
Despite not knowing what the city’s LRT operations will look like or when it will finish, he says the union is also pushing to keep the entire program in-house with the city’s bus service.
The union has been using Ottawa’s P3 operating model — a contractual arrangement between public and private entities — as an example of what not to do submitting that subcontractors in the mix contributed to allegations of “malfeasance” in the capital’s $2.1 billion system.
“We don’t want that for Hamilton,” Tuck insisted.
“We have the Hamilton Street Railway, which has provided safe, efficient transportation here in the city of Hamilton for over a century and a half.”
During a subcommittee meeting in late September, the city looked at the second of three reports for councillors outlining potential operation models for the LRT, which included complete city control or full privatization of day-to-day operations.
To date, city negotiators haven’t given their perspective on where current negotiations are at.
They did say in a statement they were committed to “free negotiating” with the ATU and remain hopeful of a “mutually agreeable collective agreement” fair to employees and taxpayers.
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