MonTREAL – Bombardier rail-equipment workers in Quebec will vote tonight on a conciliators recommendation for a new collective agreement that would end the nearly five-week strike.
unio members will gather at a meeting northeast of Quebec City at 5:30 p.m. with a decision likely announced a few hours later.
A spokesman for the Confederation of National Trade unios affiliate said the negotiating team is not announcing whether it will recommend acceptance until the meeting starts.
Bombardier said this week that is was hopeful that the 330 workers will accept conciliator Jean Poiriers recommendation that was issued Sunday after a blitz of offers between the two sides over the weekend.
“We think that his recommendations are pretty realistic, theyre fair enough and I figure that for both parties this is wher it should stop and we are optimistic that we could have the end of it and resume work,” spokesman Marc Laforge said in an interview Monday.
Laforge declined to provide details about the offer but said it fits within the framework of Bombardiers offer that was soundly rejected by workers on Nov. 22.
“Its all within the framework that was on the table and about being creative and see how you can work things out with what was there and also to try to meet the unios preoccupations and also our own.”
Subcontracting, pension and salaries have been the key issues for the workers who have been without a contract since Sept. 30, 2011 and who have been on strike since Nov. 1.
Bombardier characterized its earlier proposal as a generous offer that raises wages and pension benefits and contained a commitment to invest in new technology at the plant northeast of Quebec City.
It included a 12.5 per cent wage increase over five years, a $9-million pension plan contribution that would raise employee benefits by 18 per cent and a commitment to invest $3 million in new state-of-the-art laser welding technology that would return some jobs that were outsourced to the United States.
Laforge said work can resume as early as Thursday morning if the deal is accepted.
On the Toronto Stock Exchange, Bombardiers shares lost nine cents or 2.56 per cent, at $3.42 in afternoon trading.
