CORNWALL, Ontario – The striking Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) councils representing the City of Cornwall’s librarians, outdoor workers, inside workers and paramedics have rejected the City of Cornwall’s "final" offer.
The City made their offer on May 15, the day before the strike began.
The union’s negotiating team rejected that offer the same day and refused to take it to their members for a vote.
After two weeks of strike, the City demanded a Ministry of Labour supervised vote.
CUPE stated that the earliest date which the Ministry could supervise the vote would be June 15, and they further stated that they would hold an unsupervised vote on Monday, June 4 in order to return to the negotiating table more quickly.
Neither side would disclose to the media what the offer contained, but Councillor Andre Rivette told the CBC that he believed that sick leave was a main issue of the strike.
Monday night, CUPE announced in a press release that their members had rejected the offer by 92.5 percent against.
“The City asked us to take their last offer directly to our members, and we have done that, using the documents submitted by the employer to the Ministry of Labour last week,” CUPE wrote in a media release. “Our members have voted, and we have communicated the results to the City of Cornwall. We expect they will respect the democratic outcome of these votes.”
“CUPE has invited the City right back to the bargaining table for tomorrow, Tuesday June 5,” the media release continued. “CUPE is prepared to do all we can at the bargaining table to resolve this quickly, and return vital services to normal for Cornwall residents. Will the City commit to do the same?”
The City has yet to respond to the results of the vote.
