Unifor members at Toronto Terminals Railway ratify new contract
July 15, 2016
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Members of Unifor Local 4003 and National Council 4000 have voted narrowly to accept a new four-year contract with Toronto Terminals Railway (TTR). The agreement was reached just shortly after 12-noon EDT on July 8, 2016, following several rounds of difficult negotiations. TTR is jointly owned by CN and CP Rail.
TTR had significant concessionary demands tabled this round of bargaining. The work TTR members perform is for Metrolinx, the operators of GO Transit and UP Express that run on the Union Station Rail Corridor (USRC). TTR is one of several companies contracted by Metrolinx to perform work for the provincial government agency. As Metrolinx continues to modernize and update the USRC and improve on-time performance and increase train efficiency for better customer experience for Greater Toronto Area commuters, this means they are expecting greater efficiencies and productivity from the companies they enter into contracts with, such as TTR. |
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During bargaining, TTR contracts with Metrolinx were expiring. In attempting to be competitive with its competitors who are also bidding on these same contracts, TTR was looking for greater flexibility on work rules in our TTR-Unifor Collective Agreement (Agreement 5.32) for what TTR said was to properly compete in the ‘Requests for Tender’ (RFT) or ‘Proposals’ (RFP) process with Metrolinx. The Rail Corridor Management Service Agreement and separate Flagging contracts have yet to be awarded by Metrolinx.
In the end, the Union fought off all of TTR's concessionary demands without the threat of strike action, something that may have negatively impacted attaining the contracts that keep our membership gainfully employed.
The bargaining committee negotiated a deal that saw fair wage increases retroactive to January 1, 2016 in each year of the four year contract. These wage increases are based on the Unifor wage pattern we negotiated at VIA Rail Canada - 2%, 2.5%, 2.5% and 3%. We also negotiated benefit improvements that are on par with the improvements and benefit levels that Unifor negotiated last year for our membership at CN.
We thank the membership for their participation in the ratification process, and for their support and solidarity during these negotiations.
To read our Unifor TTR Bargaining Report, tap here (PDF)
We posted the Memorandum of Settlement that was reached with TTR at the bottom of our Unifor TTR Bargaining Updates Page. Access it from the link below.
In Solidarity,
Unifor Council 4000 TTR Bbargaining Committee
In the end, the Union fought off all of TTR's concessionary demands without the threat of strike action, something that may have negatively impacted attaining the contracts that keep our membership gainfully employed.
The bargaining committee negotiated a deal that saw fair wage increases retroactive to January 1, 2016 in each year of the four year contract. These wage increases are based on the Unifor wage pattern we negotiated at VIA Rail Canada - 2%, 2.5%, 2.5% and 3%. We also negotiated benefit improvements that are on par with the improvements and benefit levels that Unifor negotiated last year for our membership at CN.
We thank the membership for their participation in the ratification process, and for their support and solidarity during these negotiations.
To read our Unifor TTR Bargaining Report, tap here (PDF)
We posted the Memorandum of Settlement that was reached with TTR at the bottom of our Unifor TTR Bargaining Updates Page. Access it from the link below.
In Solidarity,
Unifor Council 4000 TTR Bbargaining Committee
Previous Unifor Council 4000 - TTR Bargaining updates and past news articles are available by accessing our Bargaining Updates Page by clicking here.
You may also follow our negotiations on Twitter using the hash tag: #Unifor4000TTRnegs.
You may also follow our negotiations on Twitter using the hash tag: #Unifor4000TTRnegs.
