The union and employer bargained for 4 days over between mid-September to mid-October days

Discussions were productive to begin with, but it soon became clear the employer was far from willing to meet requirements when it came to our monetary proposals 

The parties weren’t able to get a deal, so we requested a day of mediation with a provincially appointed conciliation officer

We attended mediation in good faith in an effort to get deal and presented a settlement offer to the employer

The employer said that they were not in a position to respond to our offer at mediation, which in our opinion showed that there was no possibility of us getting a deal at mediation

• The employer has had all our proposals since we started bargaining in mid September

• No excuse from the union’s perspective not to be prepared to respond to our settlement offer

As the employer couldn’t respond to our settlement offer, we were forced to end the day of bargaining and ask to have the matter referred to arbitration

We’ve let the employer know we’re open to continuing settlement discussions between now and arbitration

• We hope they take us up on it, but the employer is not happy with us calling them out on not coming to mediation with any authority to make a deal

• We’re not happy with them for dragging us to mediation, knowing what we were asking for without any real ability to get a deal