On Friday, October 14th members of CUPE 1490 at the Township of Black River-Matheson overwhelmingly voted down a “final offer” their employer tried to impose. Strike deadline is set for October 24th at 12:01 a.m.
The current contract expired in March, 2016, and the parties have been in talks since May. The local has been in a legal strike or lockout position since September 10th. However, in an effort to focus on negotiating a settlement, the parties agreed to take no job action until 10 days following a supervised vote. The failure of the employer’s final offer puts the local in strike position on October 24th at 12:01 a.m. The local has a 100% strike mandate from its membership.