The following message from the bargaining team related to the arbitration process was sent to all Local presidents on November 25th.

The bargaining team is very pleased to advise that our legal counsel, Don Eady and Nini Jones of Palaire Roland, have been able to reach agreement on an arbitrator under bill 178 with Wallace Kenny, counsel to the Council.  The arbitrator is William Kaplan and some of you have attended at arbitrations with Kaplan.  He is familiar with our sector, our collective agreement and is widely regarded as balanced in his approach to labour relations.  If the parties had not reached agreement as of yesterday, an arbitrator would have been selected by the ministry.

As you know, the arbitration is to take place within 30 days from the date the arbitrator is selected.  The parties have notified the Ministry to advise that they have agreed to an arbitrator and now we will have to await a specific date for the arbitration.

I mentioned in a previous post that we had excellent legal counsel and I have referred to them by name here.  Don Eady and Nini Jones are very well respected and have many years’ experience in labour side representation.  The bargaining team is really pleased to have their skill and representation at the upcoming arbitration particularly as we, again, face Wallace Kenny of Hicks Morley.