Strike Ends At Moncton Dealership After Five Days
MONCTON—Workers at a Moncton car dealership are back on the job after what a Unifor spokesperson says is the shortest strike she can remember.
Eighteen service technicians, detailers, and parts workers ratified an agreement on April 12 that ended their five-day strike.
The workers, who are part of Unifor Local 4501, have been off the job since April 7. They went on strike to pressure Acadia Toyota to give them better wages and benefits.
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The union and dealership reached a deal Tuesday night with the help of mediator Rick Merrill.
Kim Power is a national representative at Unifor who was at the picket line. She says the new contract brings Acadia Toyota workers’ wages in line with other dealerships in the area.
It also crystallizes a suite of new benefits related to safety equipment, tool allowances, more paid sick days, and guaranteed hours on weekends.
Before agreeing to the new terms, the workers had been without a contract for 14 months. It had also been more than two years since their last raise.
There are several unionized dealerships in the region and Power says Acadia Toyota employees “would have been the lowest paid before they went on strike.”
“They were willing to go on strike to not be the lowest-paid techs in town. So it was really about wages,” Power says.
Power says the fact that the strike ended so quickly shows the power of collective action at a time when labour markets are strained.
“I’ve been doing this for twenty-some years and I’ve had more than a few labour disputes; most are settled last minute without a strike. But other than that, the shortest one I’ve ever had [before this] is about two weeks,” Power says.
She says mechanics and other technical workers are in such short supply that the union wasn’t worried about replacement workers coming in.
That lack of fill-in help likely contributed to the strike’s short length. Power says it’s an indication that unions are in a stronger position today than they have been in quite a while.
Despite that, she claims unionized workers generally don’t want to jump straight to a strike.
“People don’t want to go on strike but sometimes it’s necessary when we want a fair agreement,” she says. “The news we always hear about strikes is that people think we’re strike-happy. But these employees really didn’t want to do it—they just really felt they had to at the time.”
Trevor Nichols is the associate editor of Huddle, based in Halifax. Send him your feedback and story ideas: [email protected].