With the news that Unifor local 103 voted 88% in favour of new deal with Ontario Northland puts an end to a long and stressful past couple of months of labour unrest in the city of North Bay.
Profs at Nipissing University got back to work after a month long strike on November 30th.
On Monday night Unifor local 103 workers agreed to get back to work after their month long work stoppage.
Mayor Al McDonald is thrilled to see both organizations back to work.
“We fought hard for two and half years to keep the ONTC in public hands as we believed in the growth of the shops and to play an important role in the transportation links in the north with the Ring of Fire,” said McDonald in an email to BayToday.ca.
“This settlement is good for the workers at the ONTC and for our community. The ONTC has an incredible opportunity to expand the shops and create additional jobs with the amount of work there is out there in the marketplace. I would like to thank all those that worked hard to find a solution.”
Nipissing MPP Vic Fedeli, who has been pushing the Liberal government to get involved in solving the work stoppage, was pleased and relieved to hear the four-week lockout is over.
“My thanks go out to many members in our community for their persistent and vocal efforts -- such as Saturday’s unity rally -- to push for a negotiated settlement to this dispute. While this deal is still pending ratification, I’m encouraged by the prospect of Unifor members being able to return to work,” said Fedeli in a media statement.
