‘Inflation is through the roof’: Hamilton’s biggest city union votes for strike mandate amid fight for wage hikes

City trying to negotiate new contracts for thousands of workers worried about keeping pace with rising cost of living

Thestar.com
June 14, 2023
Matthew Van Dongen

More than 6,000 city workers are seeking new contracts -- and wage hikes -- amid an inflation spike that has already helped spur a strike mandate at Hamilton’s largest municipal union.

The city’s inside-outside workers voted last Friday to give an “incredibly strong” strike mandate to CUPE Local 5167 ahead of a critical stretch of negotiating through a conciliator focused on wages, said union president Jay Hunter.

“The members gave us clear direction that wages are a priority, with the fact inflation is and was through the roof,” Hunter said Monday, pointing to a pandemic spike in the rate of prices for goods and services that peaked last year at 8.1 per cent. “They are finding it hard to pay their bills.”

If it comes to a strike by the city’s largest group of unionized workers -- around 3,200 people -- services affected could range from waste collection to bylaw enforcement to forestry, among others.

Worth noting: there is no immediate risk of picket lines because the two sides are still waiting to meet with a provincial conciliator in the coming weeks. But if the two sides remain at an impasse thereafter, the province can issue a ‘no-board’ report -- setting a 17-day clock ticking on potential strike or lockout.

This isn’t the only wage hike battle underway, however.

The city is also negotiating -- or preparing for bargaining -- with at least eight other unionized employee groups with expired contracts. Those groups represent thousands of additional workers, including bus drivers, paramedics, nurses and firefighters.

Paramedics have been without a contract since 2020, said OPSEU Local 256 president Mario Posteraro.

He said the city’s offer on wages was about 1.6 per cent annually over four years. Posteraro called that “insufficient and insulting” -- particularly given the inflationary jump and growing call volumes to Hamilton’s ambulance service.

Paramedics won’t be going on strike, however, because the two sides have agreed to binding arbitration on a contract. A hearing was held at the end of May.

But other union groups have been informally talking together to discuss “common goals” around wage increases in the face of rampant inflation, said transit union head Eric Tuck. “We all want to stand firm together for fair wage increases,” said the president of ATU Local 107 in an interview earlier this month.

City labour relations director Yakov Sluchenkov said he has committed to not “negotiate in public” and declined to share what marching orders a new council has provided on wage increases.

But he said ongoing talks with employee groups “for the most part, have been moving forward and productive.”

Sluchenkov acknowledged the strike vote by CUPE Local 5167, but emphasized such a move is “not unusual” during contract bargaining. “We’re still talking, we’re still negotiating and we’re waiting to (meet) a conciliator,” he said.

Historically, periods of high inflation often result in both more labour disputes and higher wage increases negotiated via collective bargaining, said Joseph Rose, a retired labour studies professor at McMaster University.

Rose said wage increases in Canada over the last two years have “lagged significantly” compared to inflation. That means many unionized employees -- in both the public and private sector -- will be seeking “wage catch-up.”

More than 120,000 federal government workers recently reached a four-year, 12.6-per cent wage hike following a spring strike. That is less than the increase the union was seeking, but higher year-over-year than the Bank of Canada’s annual two-percent inflation target.