GTA

Out-of-province workers crossing picket line to set up CNE, locked-out union says

Out-of-province replacement workers are setting up the Canadian National Exhibition in Toronto as Exhibition Place continues to lock out unionized stagehands, says the union representing skilled labourers on the picket line.

Exhibition Place has also rejected a proposal for binding arbitration from the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) Local 58, offered last week through a provincially appointed mediator. The union provides technical and staging expertise for venues at Exhibition Place, an entertainment and convention site.

Justin Antheunis, president of IATSE Local 58, says the situation is frustrating because the Exhibition Place board of governors is taking work away from unionized Toronto workers at the same the time it is refusing to negotiate.

“It’s disappointing and maddening to us that they are bringing in people from out of province to do this work when there is a completely competent workforce that they have locked out, at a time when they are really talking about creating more jobs for Toronto workers,” Antheunis told CBC Toronto on Sunday.

Antheunis said locked-out union members have witnessed workers arriving in vehicles with Quebec licence plates at the Exhibition Place grounds and crossing the picket line.

The union estimates about two dozen workers from Quebec are setting up stages for the CNE Bandshell Concerts, the hall used by the SuperDogs and an area needed by the Aerial Acrobatics and Ice Skating Show. The workers are performing likely hundreds of hours of work, he added.

All of this means that the CNE, slated to open on Friday, is most likely going to be behind a picket line.

“They are not trying to get a deal before the CNE opens. They are trying to break us down and to divide the unionized workforce in the city,” Antheunis said.

“Our members want to work. Our members pride themselves on the work that they do at the CNE every year and they are being denied this over an idea of helping out big business.”

Antheunis said Exhibition Place is not raising budgetary concerns about wages but is instead trying to break the union.

“The whole point of this lockout is to loosen the ability of unionized workers to work on the grounds of Exhibition Place.”

Exhibition Place’s negotiating team, led by a city labour relations official, rejected binding arbitration on Saturday. No explanation was given.

At issue in the labour dispute are outside contracts. The union is upset with the Exhibition Place board of governors’ plan to bring in its own workers to set up and supervise events while they still don’t have have a contract. Workers haven’t had a contract since December of 2017.

Mayor John Tory declined to comment on the labour dispute on Sunday, but did not deny that replacement workers from Quebec are doing work that could be done by skilled labourers based out of Toronto.

“In this case, Exhibition Place, where the CNE is held, has its own board of directors. It has its own negotiating committee. And so, they’re the ones who have to comment on this. I will only say that we hope the CNE this year, as always, is a big success,” he said.

“There was a proposal, I understand, put forward by Exhibition Place to have these labour matters dealt with after the CNE and that was expressly rejected by the union. And that’s all I know.”

When pressed on the issue of out-of-province labour, Tory said he wouldn’t comment on it because that would mean inserting himself into the negotiations between the union and board of governors.

“That’s never the way to get things done in the public interest, no matter who is perceived to be at fault or no matter whose responsibility it is,” he said.

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