TORONTO — May 25, 2022: The Carpenters District Council of Ontario (CDCO) announces that a tentative agreement in the ICI (industrial, commercial, institutional) sector has been reached with the various employer bargaining agencies in the province of Ontario.
Since May 9, the carpenters union has been on strike in the ICI sector after the members overwhelmingly voted down a prior tentative agreement. Since that date, 15,000 carpenters have been on picket lines in numerous Ontario communities. Our members have continued to work, however, in other sectors not impacted by this ICI strike, such as residential, EPSCA (Electrical Power Systems Construction Association), and maintenance, some of which have already ratified collective agreements for their respective sectors.
Ratification votes for the ICI tentative agreement will take place around the province on Friday, May 27, with a final tally on Friday afternoon, which will be followed by another media release with the full results. A condition for this to be ratified provincewide requires what is known as a “double majority:” a majority of locals (of 14) and a majority of members voting must vote acceptance.
According to Mike Yorke, president of the CDCO, “We worked diligently with our respective employer groups and have fashioned an agreement that reflects the current economic affordability crisis and one which we believe the members in Ontario will accept and ratify.
“Construction is too important an economic driver in this province for us to be too long on strike and without an agreement.”
Construction is a prime economic driver in Ontario worth almost $60 billion annually, is 7.2% of GDP, and employs over 600,000 workers around the province with an additional 600,000+ in spinoff jobs.
About the Carpenters District Council of Ontario: The CDCO is composed of 16 affiliated local unions (14 in the ICI sector) of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners across the province. In total, we represent approximately 30,000 women and men working in a wide range of skilled trades, including carpentry, drywall, resilient flooring, concrete formwork, underwater construction, welding, scaffolding, and a long list of other construction-related work.
