Cadillac Fairview locks out union employees, then fires them. Where's the MSM?

I came across some news about a month ago, that Cadillac Fairview had locked out a number of its unionized employees after contract negotiations had broken down. It wasn't on radio or TV, and I didn't read about it in the paper. I found out about it through the social networking site facebook. At the time I did a search for a news source on the Internet, but came up totally dry...so I forgot about it.

Today I received another message on facebook, this one telling me that the locked out unionized workers had been terminated. Included this time was a CNW press release from the employee's union: The Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada (CEP).

The press release says in part:

Cadillac Fairview Corporation locked out the maintenance and skilled
trades employees in two bargaining units after tabling a "final offer" that
proposed to eliminate employees, force workers to re-apply for their jobs,
restrict union representation and undermine bargaining rights.

After four weeks of a lockout, the company this week sent a letter to all
locked out employees stating that it is pleased with the contractor hired to
do the union members' work and is therefore terminating all 61 employees,
including those on sick leave and long term disability.

What I find very interesting is that Cadillac Fairview is wholly owned by the Ontario Teacher's Pension Plan, they bought the commercial property developer back in 1999. Given that Ontario's teachers are unionized themselves, I wonder how they'd feel about a contract offer that called for job cuts and for teachers to re-apply for their jobs.

As regular readers will be aware, while I try to be fair minded and moderate...my sympathies typically lean toward honest working stiffs. I have no issue with employees organizing collectively to enhance their bargaining power and to achieve a better standard of living. As a side note, I used to work in a CF building, one of the Toronto Eaton Centre office towers (TEC Towers). Its going back a few years (2000-2003) but in the two plus years I worked there, the buildings were extremely well maintained.

There's not much else to go on right now, and few sources for information. I've joined the worker's facebook group, and I found a blog called The Real CF News. There is a hearing scheduled for the end of the month with Ontario's Labour Relations Board, and I'll be keeping an eye on this.

If the union's allegations are proven true, I'll be altering my shopping habits. Cadillac Fairview owns a ton of shopping malls in Canada, in addition to the Eaton Centre their holdings include: the Erin Mills Town Centre, Sherway Gardens, and a host of others across the Greater Toronto Area. Cadillac Fairview is a multi billion dollar corporation, and this trend toward replacing decently paid unionized workers with contract employees making survival wages and no benefits concerns me.

I'm sure the Neo Conservative right wingers will be all over this in no time...they seem to love seeing union workers losing decently remunerative jobs that provide some security and a dental plan.

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