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Operating engineers in Ontario’s ICI sector have voted to ratify their proposed ICI provincial collective agreement, putting an end of their almost three-week strike.

“It’s a done deal,” said International Union of Operating Engineers (IUOE) Local 793 business manager Mike Gallagher on May 20.

“We look forward to continuing to build the province of Ontario, with priorities for highways, bridges, hospitals, schools, the energy sector and more.”

The deal included raises of $3 in each of the next three years with a 19-per-cent increase in the room and board allowance; the percentage increase in wages was not available. Details of the return to work were not available. Operating engineers include crane operators and heavy equipment operators.

The lead negotiator for the Operating Engineers Employer Bargaining Agency did not respond to a request for comment.

In another development, Gallagher noted that striking IUOE members working in residential highrise formwork voted to accept a deal. LIUNA members in highrise formwork also voted to ratify the deal, ending that strike as of May 20. LIUNA workers in the sector were instructed to return to work in a post on the LIUNA website.

Details of the agreement ratified by plumbers and pipefitters on May 17 have also been reported. The members of UA received 12.5 per cent or 13.5 per cent over three years depending on where they work in the province.

Unionized carpenters in the ICI sector remained on strike May 20, with pickets set up at Woodbine Racetrack and Casino in Toronto. The Carpenters’ also established lines at The Well and the CIBC Square projects recently.

Bargaining sessions were scheduled for May 24 and 26.

“We are hoping for a resolution to this provincewide strike…when we meet with the various employer bargaining agencies,” said Mike Yorke, president of the Carpenters’ District Council of Ontario, in a statement, noting the completion of “two full weeks on the picket line fighting for better wages that address the affordability crisis and the crisis of cost of living we are currently experiencing in this province.”

Representatives of the employers bargaining agency did not return a request for comment.

Last week painters, members of the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades (IUPAT) rejected a tentative deal. The vote came May 10. On April 28, drywall tapers in IUPAT working in ICI also nixed a proposed deal.

Neither the tapers (appendix B) nor the painters (appendix A) have set a date to start a legal strike.

Meanwhile the Roofing Negotiating Committee stated in a May 17 post on its website, “Our members voted overwhelmingly to pursue a strike action in the event negotiations do not result in a ratified collective agreement.”

Further negotiations with the employers on May 19 and 20 were unsuccessful but May 26 and 27 were set aside to return to the table.

Sheel metal workers also voted down a proposed deal. Bargaining will resume this week, according to a post on the Ontario Sheet Metal Workers’ and Roofers’ Conference website.

Bargainers for the rodworkers, who also voted down a proposed deal, will participate in a May 27 Zoom call with a conciliator.

Sprinkler fitters are also voting to ratify a deal with final results expected June. 4.

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