ONTC thankful for council and city support

Monday night at city Hall had surprise guest speakers expressing their thanks to the council for their support this summer when they were fighting a decision by Metrolinx to award 127 rail coaches to CAD in Montreal, resulting in a 120 million dollar loss and leaving local ONTC fearful of layoffs and a slowdown of productivity in the city.

In the end, diligence, hard work and top notch negotiations by many concerned by the situation proved fruitful as the group was able to secure other, be it, smaller contracts to maintain their facilities and keep their workforce at its current capacity.

Brian Kelly, President of CAW Local 103, representing 450 people at the ONTC, along with another union representative, was there during regular city council to recognize that their success was due in no small part from city councillors and Mayor MacDonald.

“They were the first group to come on board and that helped in getting the community on board as well as getting other chambers and boards to come out,” says Kelly.

In response, Deputy Mayor Peter Chirico says that he's proud that city staff and others worked so hard with the unions, trying to save jobs in North Bay.

“Certainly for them to come tonight and express their gratitude for both council and staff for the work that was done, to get that message out, I think it's very important because it was certainly a rough time for the city,” says Chirico.

Although Chirico is grateful for the accolades given, he says that he thinks that the citizens of North Bay also deserve credit for their concerned efforts.

“They stood behind them,” says Chirico, “they know how important the ONTC is to this community and all communities in the North.”

“It was very well received and we appreciate them coming forward.”

Union members also came out to council to touch base with the city and inform them what's going on as well as to seek out further assistance as they move forward to try to obtain a strategic alliance with Metrolinx and Ontario Northland.

Union members will be meeting with ONTC officials on Tuesday to discuss hiring up to 70 people during the next few months to begin work on smaller contracts that they have been recently been able to procure.

To date 24 smaller contracts have come in from AMT, as well as eight from Rocky Mountaineer. In addition, Kelly says that there could be a potential for 20 more contracts, as well as the 10 they're getting from Metrolinx. In turn, they will be doubling their workforce.

“It's a win for the community if we hire the amount of people that we think we'll have,” says Kelly.

Although the contracts combined will secure the refurbishment division steady work through to the next year, Kelly says that it's important that a strategic alliance with Metrolinx is made in order to anchor the workforce in place. If an alliance can't be made, they risk facing the same situation as they did last June, with jobs dropping off quickly and dramatically.

“It's a feast and then it's famine”, Kelly says.

The future may look a little sketchy but Kelly says they've “done a 180” since the decision first came out with Metrolinx and losing the coveted ONTC refurbishment contract.

“It was very gloom and doom,” says Kelly, “where we are today is amazing.”

With all the new work, a bigger workforce and commitments that were made, Kelly says that he's hopeful that they're going to be in better shape than they were when they had the GO TRANSIT contract.

It was a fight that Kelly says he could have done without but says that he feels pretty good as to the way it's all turned out.

“It's not quite redemption,” Kelly says, “but we are far happier than we were in June or July.”

“It's come a long way.”