The President of Unifor Local 2458 says it's disappointing that Clear Medical Imaging is pushing their latest contract offer to a vote.
Ken Durocher states that a contract offer was given to the company on Friday, Clear Medical Imaging then came back with an updated proposal early this week, and has now requested the Ontario Ministry of Labour to conduct a final offer vote.
A statement released by the company's CEO, Mike Reinkober, says the offer included both wage and benefit improvements.
The union will no longer be able to counter the offer provided by the company, and will now need to vote on the latest offer.
The union represents 130 employees who work as x-ray and ultrasound technologists and clerical and administrative staff across 11 locations in Windsor, LaSalle, Tecumseh, Essex, and Chatham.
Durocher says the union received an offer without being able to counter it.
"It's very disappointing because we thought some dialogue was happening, we did talk to their representatives yesterday when we received the offer, and did inform them that we were looking at sending a counter proposal to them today to see if we can get closer to reaching a fair collective agreement for all the members in Clear Imaging."
He says the union doesn't recommend the membership accept the latest offer.
"It did address a few issues, but it wasn't addressing all the membership. And it seemed it was an offer to divide the membership, and so that's why we were going to proceed to bring that back to the membership for a vote, but I guess this is how they have chosen to try to get a collective agreement approved."
Durocher says there is no date set by the Ministry of Labour for voting at this time.
"So we imagine they will set the date, we will obviously hold a membership meeting very quickly to explain the process, and to let our membership know why we don't recommend the proposed final offer from the company."
The workers walked off the job on October 25 to back contract demands.
Wages, benefits, mandatory overtime, job security, and the contracting out of services remain key sticking points in the labour dispute.
Unifor Local 2458 and company representatives resumed talks on Nov. 21 after negotiations broke off suddenly Nov. 8.
Full statement issued Wednesday by Clear Medical Imaging:
"It has been five weeks since Unifor commenced a strike that has shut down our operations. In this time, we have met multiple times with the union's bargaining committee and tried to reach an agreement that would see our valued staff get back to work and the resumption of the important services we provide for the people of Southwestern Ontario. Unfortunately, despite our best efforts, we have been unable to reach an agreement with the union's bargaining committee. With this in mind, yesterday we asked the Ontario Ministry of Labour to conduct a final offer vote. This will provide our employees with the chance to vote directly on the last offer that we provided the union's bargaining committee. This offer included both wage and benefit improvements. If the vote is successful and employees accept our offer, we would resume operations as soon as possible. We are hopeful that the final offer vote will occur next week," says Mike Reinkober, chief executive officer at Clear Medical Imaging.