Tom Sasvari
The Recorder
SUDBURY—An agreement has been reached between the Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU), Local 666, and the Sudbury Child and Family Centre to end a three-week strike.
“There has been a lot of movement in the negotiations,” said Spencer Lucas, OPSEU Local 666/Chair Strike Communications Committee, in an interview with the Recorder on Tuesday. “I mean being at the bargaining table at all is a positive sign,” he said, pointing out negotiators for both parties were at the negotiating table on Monday.
“The agreements we will be bringing to the membership we feel will be very beneficial to all parties,” he said. Members received information and voted on the agreement Wednesday.
The Sudbury Child and Family Centre has offices in Chapleau, Little Current, Espanola and Greater Sudbury, and 83 full and part time employees, including three on Manitoulin Island, provide front line mental health services to more than 2,300 children, teens and families.
The union members had been working without a contract since April 1, 2011 and on November 1 they voted 90 percent in favour of strike action. Five subsequent days of conciliation and mediation ended in a deadlock on November 19. Two of the major issues in dispute has been hours of work, and job security, along with a wage freeze.
Workers return to work after the holidays, on January 3.
