Construction projects in Ottawa may be postponed during the busiest season, as about 15,000 provincial carpenters in the industrial, commercial and institutional sector (ICI) will go on strike.
Ontario County Carpenters have voted to reject their employers’ latest offer, which means they will leave work Monday, one minute after midnight, unless there is a last-minute agreement.
The carpenters will join the thousands of crane operators who went on strike last Monday.
“Will have [a] Kevan Young, director of operations at SMDR Construction Inc, a project management company working on commercial buildings in Ottawa, suspects.
“We are exporting all the work that is going on,” he said. “And if we lose the ability to negotiate with these people, then our projects will definitely stop or certainly slow down.”
Members want a “fair deal”
The Ontario County Carpenters’ Council consists of 17 affiliated local unions of the United Carpenters’ and Carpenters’ Brotherhood.
“No one wants to strike,” Mike York, the council’s president, said in a press release last week.
Members are calling for a “fair increase in wages”, the statement said, to reflect a “spiraling increase in the cost of living”.
“Our union has not been on strike in the ICI sector for 34 years,” York said. “But our members, from one side of the province to the other, now voted overwhelmingly to tell their employers that we want a fair deal.
Mike York is president of the Ontario Carpenters County Council. He says its members want a “fair deal” and are ready to leave work on Monday (May 9th). (Tina MacKenzie / CBC)
The union wants employers to return to the negotiating table to “try to make an improved offer” before Monday’s strike deadline.
The CBC tried to contact the union, but did not receive a response in time for publication.
The Ontario Construction Workers’ Association, a carpenter’s employer, declined to comment when contacted Sunday.
Record labor shortage
Ahead of Monday’s strike, the industry was already facing delays due to a tight labor market, said John DeVries, president of the Ottawa Construction Association.
“It’s a hot construction market. And there’s a shortage of people coming into the industry,” he said. “So put it all together and we’re a sector that’s right in the middle of a storm.”
John DeVries, president and general manager of the Ottawa Construction Association, says non-operating cranes have already affected construction projects in the city. (Dale Molnar / CBC)
Canada is in the middle of a record labor shortageand construction jobs proved to be some of the most difficult to fill due to the country’s aging population and the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Young added that it was very difficult to find “quality workers”.
“Times are very difficult. We are trying, you know, to do our part to help and help restart the economy,” he said. “And it’s hard to find people to finish our work. So, yes, it’s definitely a challenge.”
Trade strikes may increase
Failure of cranes has already affected the movement of materials at some sites, creating a “suffocation point,” DeVries said.
DeVries expects to see the real impact of the striking workers in the coming weeks.
He expects more unions – from plumbers and ironworkers to drywall installers – to follow in the footsteps of crane operators and carpenters and reject proposals from their employers.
“Everyone else has been negotiating for the last few weeks … every day will bring another domino,” DeVries said.
“And we don’t know how long it will last.”
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