There is no change to report today in the Shorelines Casino workers strike in Belleville.
The 93 workers represented by Unifor Local 1090, including slots workers, dealers, hospitality staff and more, halted work Friday after the workers rejected a deal from Great Canadian Gaming regarding wages.
Unifor Local 1090 President Corey Dalton told Quinte News that talks have effectively broken off as the company has refused to budge on the offer made earlier this week that was rejected by 84% of the workers.
“We had discussions with them earlier in the day and at approximately 4 o’clock yesterday the employers let the union know that they were not making any additional movements on their proposal and that they were effectively complete with their initial negotiations. Basically, it was a ‘take it or leave it’ proposition for the union, the same offer that we had already said no to, so talks have broken off.”
He said that they are trying to get a deal that would see the workers compensated fairly and similarly to other locations owned by Great Canadian.
“Wage is a huge issue because workers here trail the industry average by more than four dollars per hour versus unionized casinos, many of which are operated by Great Canadian Gaming, with collective agreements that they’ve agreed to at other properties, are fair and equitable agreements. We trail them by, on average, more than four dollars an hour.”
Dalton said that getting a fair deal for the workers and getting them back to work is still the priority, but until such an agreement can be made, they will continue to picket in front of the casino every day.
(Photo: Ryan Peddigrew/Quinte News)
(Photo: Ryan Peddigrew/Quinte News)
