Picket lines are up at Shorelines Casino Belleville where almost 100 unionized employees walked off the job early Friday.
Picket lines went up Friday morning after Shorelines and members of Unifor Local 1090 were unable to reach a deal.
Unifor Local 1090 represents 93 casino workers in table games, slots, food and beverage, kitchen and culinary, facilities and housekeeping, guest services, and cashiering.
They’ve been trying to reach their first collective agreement since becoming unionized in March 2020.
Union local president Corey Dalton says wages are the biggest issue as they try to bring them more in line with the industry average.
“Workers here trail the industry average by about $4.10 an hour. We said to the company, ‘Listen, we understand that, you know that $4.10 an hour is a gap.’ That’s a massive gap. We don’t expect to close that entire gap in a first collective agreement. That’s typically not the way bargaining works. But we are asking that workers get above the poverty line.”
Dalton says this is the first workplace since Unifor was established in 2013 that has gone on strike because they haven’t been able to reach an initial deal.
It’s also the first negotiations for any of the casino workers they represent since Great Canadian Gaming was acquired by American company Apollo.
“Our message is, that if an international company is gonna come and buy a Canadian company and come into Canada, that they need to recognize that workers need to be treated with respect. And that workers are going to stand up for themselves and fight to be treated with respect.”
Both parties met late into the night but were unable to reach an agreement by Friday’s 1 a.m. strike deadline.
Dalton says the good news is talks are continuing today.
“There are some issues that we’re definitely going to have to work our way through. But it’s certainly a positive sign that the company and the union are still in discussions. Nobody’s walked away from the table at this point. And it’s our goal to get a deal as quickly as we can, a fair deal as quickly as we can, vote on it and get workers back to work.”
Eighty-four per cent of Union members rejected the employer’s most recent offer on Wednesday.
