Several hundred unionized workers at the Irving Shipyard in Halifax staged an unplanned and unsanctioned walkout Thursday afternoon.
Workers in Unifor MFW Local 1 began leaving the shipyard’s assembly hall and gathering outside on Irving property just after 12:30 p.m.
The action was in response to what the union is calling “unilateral action by Irving.” Unifor says paystubs indicate that Irving has stopped paying pension contributions on overtime.
On its website, the union’s bargaining committee posted a statement in which it asked members not to walk off the job.
“We would ask all of you to stay on the job, and have faith in your bargaining committee to attempt to resolve this issue at the negotiating table,” the statement reads.
“Don’t give the company the chance to discipline you and sidetrack our negotiations. We will not accept this kind of continued bad faith bargaining from Irving and we will react to this very quickly.”
The current contract expired at the end of December 2017.
Irving requested conciliation after four days of bargaining, and the two sides have been meeting with a provincially-appointed conciliator.
Members of Unifor MFW Local 1, which represents 800 shipyard workers, voted 95 per cent in favour of a strike mandate in early December.
More to come
