Unifor, Bombardier have 'meaningful discussion' in Thunder Bay
For the first time since Bombardier workers in Thunder Bay went on strike a few weeks ago, representatives of the union and the company met face-to-face today.
Bombardier vice president Aaron Rivers sat down with officials from Unifor for what Local 1075 president Dominic Pasqualino described as a beneficial meeting.
"We discussed some of the roadblocks that we have to getting a settlement,” Pasqualino said.
“This was probably the first meaningful discussion we had since before the strike.”
Pasqualino said he hopes today's meeting will lead to another one.
Bombardier spokesperson Stephanie Ash said the meeting was inititated by the company.
“I think it was a really positive start to hopefully moving forward,” she said.
“We're very hopeful that this is a first step toward getting to that point where there will be future talks."
Fourth week of strike
Ash said no date has been set yet for the resumption of formal negotiations, and the company is still going to court on Thursday to ask for an injunction to control picketing by Unifor members.
Pasqualino said the talks are “significant because we are into our fourth week [of the strike] … and certainly a solution can never be found if there are no talks.”
He noted the conversation today was with a person who “actually can make some of the decisions on the company side.”
Ash said the union “had been saying for the last week that they wanted to meet with Aaron, as opposed to the negotiating committee. So he was in Thunder Bay and decided to extend that invitation to meet.”
She added the conversation delved into "the challenges facing both sides, in terms of coming to an agreement, the roadblocks that the Unifor group has with relation to the proposed contract, as well as the things that are important to [Bombardier].”
Ash said the two sides agreed to go back to their negotiating committees and talk about some of the roadblocks and "see where we can have some movement."