Union calls on council to hold open arbitration vote
Posted Mar 6, 2012 06:10:28 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
The ongoing transit strike will be the focus of another closed-door discussion at city hall today.
Regional council will get another update on the dispute with the Amalgamated Transit Union, which has been at a standstill since Friday, when the union let a deadline for acceptance of the city’s final offer lapse.
Over the weekend, some councillors said it may be time to consider binding arbitration – but but that idea is being shot down by other councillors.
Two councilors said over the weekend that they personally would be open to binding arbitration, but Coun. Gloria McCluskey (Dartmouth Centre) says council decided, as a body, not to go that route.
“It’s a decision of council and we’re sticking by that decision,” she said.
ATU Local 508 president Ken Wilson says he wants councillors to hold an open vote on binding arbitration.
“Put their name on whatever it is that they do and vote either for arbitration or not,” he said. “Let’s see exactly who’s for it and who’s not.”
At least one caller to News 95.7 agreed with Wilson.
“It’s not your normal circumstance, where you guys get to say ‘no’ to arbitration and then not even defend your vote,” he told councillors McCluskey and Peter Lund on The Rick Howe Show. “Your vote isn’t private on that.”
Lund rebuffed the call for an open vote, saying council must continue to present a united front to the public.
“Any discussions about binding arbitration are left with regional council,” says Lund. “I don’t want to offer any personal comment on that, and we’ll leave it at that.”
Council begins at 6 p.m. The discussion on the transit strike will be held in camera.
