Some 15,000 Ontario carpenters began a strike action this week, threatening project delays amid the sector’s busiest season. The Ontario chapter of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America voted last week to reject the latest offer from an employers’ group. They join another 15,000 construction workers and several thousand crane operators, members of the Labourers’ International Union of North America (LiUNA) Local 183, who walked off the job last week.
Pickets lines formed Monday morning. Mike Yorke, president of the Carpenters’ District Council of Ontario, told CBC News negotiations could resume as early as Thursday. Under the Ontario Labour Relations Act, strikes in the residential construction sector are capped at six weeks in length.
