The union representing the locked out Rideau Carleton Raceway OLG Slots staff is concerned Ontario Lottery Corporation management is more focused on hiring replacement workers than resolving the ongoing labour dispute.
But OLG says it remains hopeful that all the outstanding contractual issues will be resolved as soon as possible.
The 124 workers were locked out on Dec. 16 after they overwhelmingly refused to accept OLG’s latest offer, which limited wage increases to 1.75 per cent over the course of a three-year contract and also sought to remove existing pension language from the current collective agreement. The union is asking for wage increases of three per cent per year “to catch up with the increased cost of living.”
In January, Nepean-Carleton Conservative MPP Lisa MacLeod organized a rally in Ottawa to address the “massive disparity” in salaries between Raceway employees and those in other OLG facilities such as Woodbine Racetrack in Toronto, where employees earn 4.5 per cent more than workers at the Rideau Carleton Raceway.
OLG spokesperson Rui Brum said Thursday that the three-year contract offer is on par with many other contracts negotiated since 2014.
“OLG is offering a wage increase that has been consistent with 17 collective agreements negotiated, recommended and ratified in locations across Ontario,” said Brum.
According to a Public Service Alliance of Canada release, which represents the locked out workers, revenue at OLG Slots has fallen by $1 million in the latest quarter since the dispute, in part because of reduced hours the facility is able to be open.
“It appears that by refusing the workers’ very reasonable wage demands and locking them out, OLG has ended up losing five times as much in lower revenue during the lucrative holiday season at the end of the year,” said Larry Rousseau, PSAC’s regional executive vice president in Ottawa-Gatineau.
Raceway management has started the process of hiring replacement workers on four-month contracts, with eleven positions posted to the OLG’s hiring website in late February, according to the release. However Brum says that “as it does every summer”, the Slots hires more employees to help with the busier times of the year.
Alroy Fonseca, a spokesperson for PSAC, confirmed the two sides met shortly after the January rally but that the meeting lasted only half an hour before it “fell apart.”
Now the members are ramping up their efforts by travelling to Toronto by bus on March 9 to hold a rally at Queen’s Park.
