FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE June 20, 2001

Strike averted at Homes First

Toronto – Members of Local 540, and their employer, Homes First, have ratified a settlement, narrowly averting a strike.

The 85 employees, who are property maintenance, administration, and supportive housing workers, were set to walk off the job at midnight, Wednesday, June 20, if a deal had not been reached.

The outstanding issues were wages and relief staff scheduling. The workers’ pay had been frozen for seven years, and they had been in bargaining for a renewal contract since 1998. Bargaining unit staff argued that the prolonged wage freeze was affecting their ability to deliver services to tenants.

Members had voted at the end of May to reject the employer’s offer and authorize a strike, after the Homes First board had told OPSEU that they "did not have a mandate" to authorize an annual wage increase of more than two per cent.

The settlement will see wages increased by 2.25 per cent in each of the three years of the contract, and provide a signing bonus of $750. The employer also accepted OPSEU’s proposal on relief staff scheduling. Importantly, for the first time, members will receive cash for on-call duty and work on call-back.

Local 540 President Dan Meany said, "We are proud of the relationships we forge with Homes First tenants. An acceptable contract offer, from our perspective, is one which respects not only our needs as workers, but the tenants’ needs for services they can rely on."

"The fact that we stood together and pressed our demands has meant we have shifted the Board beyond their two per cent mandate," said Mobilizing Committee member Dan Arsenault.

Homes First, in the City of Toronto, operates three transitional housing projects for the hard-to-house, as well as thirteen second-stage housing projects for tenants in need of supportive housing.

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For more information:

Nick DiSalle: 416-593-1116, ext. 234
Dan Meany: 416-395-0961