Picket shuts down Woodbine access

Locked-out workers block entrances to call attention to pension plan demands

A few hundred locked-out Ontario Lottery and Gaming (OLG) workers picketed Woodbine Racetrack for a second day Saturday after the corporation walked away from pension plan negotiations in September, according to the union representing the workers.

About 400 Unifor workers and supporters blocked access to the racetrack and casino’s parking lot and entrances for about eight hours Friday.

A few hundred formed picket lines at each of the facility’s six entrances Saturday, said Bob Orr, the Unifor union assistant president responsible for the OLG file.

TTC buses are not stopping in front of Woodbine during the dispute, meaning anyone arriving by public transit must walk from the closest stop, about a kilometre away.

Some 835 Ontario Lottery and Gaming workers represented by Unifor have been locked out since 12:01 a.m. on Sept. 19, when the gaming commission walked away from the table, Orr said, as the union tried to bargain a new pension plan for its members.

The retirement security of the workers is at risk under OLG’s privatization plan, which doesn’t allow them to stay in the Ontario Public Sector Pension Plan and leaves them without one, Orr said.

Unifor represents OLG security staff at Woodbine and all staff at facilities in Brantford and Sudbury, which have seen round-the-clock pickets since Sept. 19.

“We’re just very frustrated that the OLG chose to walk away from the table,” Orr said.

“Unifor was not in a legal strike position, we had not taken a strike vote and yet . . . the company left the table.”

However, OLG spokesperson Rui Brum said that employees would be part of the public pension until the day a private service provider takes over, and that “to ensure OLG employees continue to have a pension plan, the service provider will be contractually required to provide a registered pension plan to all eligible employees moving over from OLG.”

Brum said the terms set out for the Unifor workers were consistent with other agreements signed in 2014 and 2015 by unions at 10 locations across Ontario, such as the Caesars Windsor casino.

He also noted that despite the pickets, the OLG facilities in Brantford and Sudbury are still open for business, and called the picket at Woodbine on Saturday an “unlawful blockade” that the OLG will use “all legal options” to resolve. Orr disagreed. “We don’t think that’s true (that the blockade is unlawful). But they’re entitled to that view. Certainly, the police aren’t doing anything to stop us,” Orr said.

“We’re just very frustrated that the OLG chose to walk away from the table.” BOB ORR UNIFOR ASSISTANT PRESIDENT

Unifor is also concerned that the OLG and provincial government hasn’t said when the registered pension plan will take effect, nor provided any details about it, Orr said.

As well, he noted that the union representing Caesars Windsor employees had to negotiate the details of their pension plan with the employer.

The OLG has been in contact with Unifor on “several occasions,” including Friday evening, but said they “do not have a mandate from the government to bargain a replacement pension plan,” Orr said.

Brum said the OLG hasn’t gone back to the bargaining table but is willing to, and is hoping for a swift resolution.

Unifor is hoping to get Premier Kathleen Wynne’s attention to resolve the situation, Orr said, and has sent her a five-page letter outlining the situation.

“A big part of her platform last year, when there was an election going on, was about pensions and it was about union jobs, yet here we are locked out,” Orr said.

“So we just want to send a message to her to get the OLG back to the bargaining table with the mandate to negotiate, not to give us ultimatums.”

Orr added that the roughly 1,400 Unifor workers at seven OLG locations across the province generate about $1.26 billion in revenue.

“If that doesn’t buy you a pension plan, I’m not sure what would,” he said.