Forestry workers in the Kamloops area didn’t go on strike as planned this past weekend.
More than 3,000 workers voted 98 per cent in favour of strike action with 72-hour strike notice, that expired on Saturday. However, the president of Local 1-417 of the Steelworkers Union Marty Gibbons says there’s been a new development.
“We were successful in getting a vast majority of the concessions off the table,” he said. “We are not quite there at a collective agreement yet.”
“But basically, we decided that it wasn’t really productive to continue to hammer each other across the bargaining table and Interior Forest Labour Relations has filled out the application and a mediator Dave Schwab has been appointed.”
The last contract expired July 1st.
“Both parties want an agreement,” Gibbons added. “But we have different ideas on what that looks like. I think with some hard work, we can probably get this done.”