Keep trying to solve your own problem with the ATU, feds tell city

A couple of weeks ago, the city asked the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service to appoint a conciliator to help reach a new contract with Amalgamated Transit Union Local 279, the big drivers' and mechanics' union. This sound like a generally positive sort of a thing, but it has some dark undertones — having a conciliator work with the parties (and fail to get them together) is a legally required step on the way to a strike or lockout.

Given that the union refuses to bargain on a new contract while the sides still haven't agreed on the work-scheduling provisions in the 2008-2011 contract the were the central issue in the 2008-2009 strike, and if somebody's thinking another work-stoppage is inevitable the city would probably prefer a lockout in the summer over a strike in the winter ... skipping right ahead to conciliation seems a bit menacing.

Hold your horses, says the FMCS, which supplies these labour helpers. We can't get into conciliation on a new agreement till you've sorted out the last one.

FMCS Speaks Out

It's hard to be sure from the brief letter, but the line "In particular, we are not satisfied that the notice to commence collective bargaining has been properly given under section 49 of the Code" suggests that the FMCS doesn't think new bargaining can begin till the old bargaining is concluded one way or another.

That'll likely take a definitive ruling on a scheduling system from the arbitration panel that previous laid out some ground rules generally favourable to the city and told the city and union to sort out the details themselves. That hasn't happened, if you ask the union, because the city has decided to ignore some of the limitations in the ground rules that it didn't like. The city has no public explanation for why it hasn't happened, since these days everyone there claims not to discuss labour issues in public (though of course they frequently have in the past).

Anyway, point is, a work stoppage at OC Transpo could well still be on the way, but this communication from the FMCS seems to shove it a considerable distance down the road. And the appointment of two mediators, though it might not make a lot of difference, at least probably won't hurt.

Source: http://communities.canada.com/ottawacitizen/blogs/greaterottawa/archive/2011/04/21/keep-trying-to-solve-your-own-problem-with-the-atu-feds-tell-city.aspx

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