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Striking workers at a London transportation business have seen their pay withheld from their final week on the job before they hit the picket line, officials with their union say.
But HCL Logistics, the union adds, is saying its non-union payroll staff couldn’t cross the picket line to process the cheques that will be processed this week.
Still, the workers see it as motivation to dig in, said Brian Chapman, president of Local 27 of Unifor, representing the 147 men and women on the picket line.
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“It has just angered the workers more,” he said. “The company told us they will be paid for the last week of work, but I think it is a tactic. It’s a dumb thing to do.”
Workers hit the picket line July 22 demanding higher pay, said Chapman. They make an average of about $23 an hour and have rejected two offers from the company since they went on strike — a $1 hourly increase, and a second offer that would have added 70 cents an hour spread over three years.
It’s not enough, said Chapman.
“They feel they are way behind on wages. It is common everywhere,” he said of the workers. “They have really dug in on this and they have come together.”
Officials at HCL Logistics could not be reached for comment.
The company is a warehouse and shipping business and has defence contractor General Dynamics Land Systems Canada, with a major London operation, among its customers.
No further talks have been scheduled.
“The employer did not pay us” wages earned before the workers hit the picket line, said Jason West, the union chairperson at the plant.
“We expected our pay, because supervisors and management have all been paid,” he said.
Apart from workers not being offered a high enough increase in wages, there has been no offer to improve their benefit plans, either, West said.
“It is costing a lot more for groceries and gas,” he added. “But we are still open for negotiations. We want to go back to work.”
HCL is located on Oxford Street on the same site as General Dynamics. In 2021, the company was bought by the Toronto-based Metro Supply Chain group.
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