Township of Black River-Matheson bans striking workers from municipal sites

The Township of Black River-Matheson has issued a trespass notice for members of CUPE Local 1490, who have been on the picket line since Oct. 15.

Chris Wray, the township's chief administrative officer, said union members were holding up traffic for an unreasonable amount of time.

"If you were the third car in line, you would be there for 45 minutes," he said.

"So after that occurred, I then issued [a] trespass notice that I don't want them on the property at all."

The union members have been barred from the local arena, town hall and public works depot.

In a news release, the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) said it plans to challenge "the effort to criminalize workers."

CUPE Ontario president Fed Hahn said in a statement the union plans to challenge the notice before the Superior Court.

"Local 1490 knows we have their back, and this township will know that what they're doing won't stand," he said.

Disagreement over salary grid

Members of CUPE Local 1490, which represents 14 full-time employees with public works, recreation and some accountants, were originally locked out, but found themselves in a legal strike position last month.

The union says the town is imposing a "two-tier" wage system that would expand an existing salary grid and place new employees at the lowest tier.

In the existing system, a new employee has a probationary wage for a year before reaching the full rate for the job.The proposed grid would have five steps with a four per cent increase each step, before the worker reaches the full job rate.

Wray said it's not accurate to call it a two-tier system. 

"A tiered wage would be when you had two separate jobs that were being paid two separate rates."

CUPE Local 1490 president Serge Bouchard said the union has also taken issue with job postings for nine temporary positions at the municipality, meant to fill in their roles.

"I find it discouraging that that's the road they decided to choose rather than try to come back to the table," he said.

Bouchard said the last time the union sat down with the town to arrive at an agreement was in December just before Christmas.

"Our town deserves better than this, our workers deserve better than this," he said.

"And I think management and ourselves and everybody involved want to get back to some sort of normal."

Wray said it's up to the union to accept the township's last offer.

"The ball is in their court," he said.

"As far as I'm concerned, 14 per cent over four years is much more lucrative than particularly the CUPE unions in the northeast."