Employees at steelmaker Ivaco Rolling Mills Ltd. in L’Orignal. Ont. have ratified new collective agreements that include improvements to their wages and benefits.
About 400 employees who are members of United Steelworkers locals 7940 and 8794 voted this week to ratify five-year collective agreements.
The new contracts include improvements to benefits, including long-term disability, vision care, dental, paramedical services and prescription drug coverage. They also provide an annual wage increase of two per cent in each of the next five years.
Read: Pension, benefits maintained as Ontario mine workers ratify collective agreement
“The union’s two different bargaining units in this process were very well-prepared and were committed to working closely together in negotiating with the employer,” said Richard Leblanc, the USW’s co-ordinator for Eastern Ontario, in a press release. “More than 90 per cent of our proposals were common to both units and there was a very good synergy, which made for effective negotiating and a successful outcome.”