Wednesday, September 18, 2024
AMAPCEO members at Supply Ontario have become the second of the union’s bargaining units to receive a remedy for the government’s unconstitutional wage-restraint law Bill 124. This follows the arbitrated award that the union won for members in the Ontario Public Service (OPS) earlier this year.
Despite being the successor employer for dozens of AMAPCEO members after the agency was divested from the OPS in recent years, the Supply Ontario Employer initially denied that the Bill 124 remedy applied to our members there.
AMAPCEO fought back, making it clear that Supply Ontario was bound by the same arbitrated Bill 124 remedy that the union won in January, and that members there were entitled to the same 6.5% wage increase.
Members sprang into action and took part in a campaign that successfully pressured the Employer to finally pay AMAPCEO members at Supply Ontario what they are owed.
“They stood up and mobilized,” said union President Dave Bulmer. “Even going so far as to send dozens of individual emails to the Employer to demand better.”
On Monday, members’ salary ranges were immediately adjusted to reflect the Bill 124 settlement. Retroactive payments back to April 1, 2022 will be processed later this fall.
"This is yet another example of how we’re stronger together,” said Bulmer. “We applied pressure on the Employer from many angles—at the labour relations table, with legal counsel, and mobilizing in the workplace—and it paid off.”
Members also successfully pressured the Supply Ontario to implement the 1% wage increases effective April 1, 2024 that were negotiated in the current collective agreement. The Supply Ontario Employer had dragged their feet on implementing these adjustments.
“Rest assured that we will continue to hold the Supply Ontario Employer to account until the money is in our members’ accounts,” said Bulmer. “It should never have taken the Employer this long to recognize their responsibilities. Though the divestment has made matters more complicated, a contract is a contract.”