Ftbshdl971 Cir lat n 1 Ã' k Vol. 11, No. 13 Wednesday, April 1, 1981 24 Pages Kiss wintergood-bye Schools in Whitby and throughout Durham joyed the fine weather that Whitby had for most of Region didn't hold classes last week observing theweek. the annual tradition known as the March break. Here Lisa MacDonald and Shelly Marshall And in celebration of the March break, some swing on the tire in Central Park in West Lynde. lucky people take off for the sunshine of the The March break is usually the first sign that southern United States or head to cottages tosummer is approaching with school ta end some prepare for the upcomiîng summer season. 10 weeks f rom now. -sum er-s-a ro-a hn with scooPrl stedff some However, some people stayed home and en- r ~ K' -. ~N The 625 workers at Whit- by's Sklar Furniture Ltd. plant walked off the job Monday morning after having rejected the advice of their union's negotiating committee. The workers, members of the Upholsterers Inter- national Union of North America, voted down "the best contract offer they've ever seen." Last week, a Sklar spokesman referred to the strike as "inevitable" and said that agreement could be reached to delay the strike until mediation. Bob Donald said that a tentative agreement had been reached early last week following a marathon bargaining session between the company and the UIU. "Both committees agreed it was the best contract offer they've ever seen," Donald said. However, it appears as though the union rank and file did not share this sen- timent as they voted 56 per cent against the settlement. Almost 59 per cent of the workers supported a strike vote. Both sides have met with a provincial conciliator and have agreed to seek a mediator at some point in time although Donald said that "it's not feasible at this point to have a mediator called in." The spokesman said that "we will be talking to the union on a regular basis" throughout the strike. John O'Connor, a spokesman for the UIU said last Friday that he was at- tempting to set up a meeting with Sklar, adding "we're hoping for something, possibly." Under the old two-year agreement that ended February 28, workers were paid a base rate of between $4.94 and $7.15 an hour. However, 85 per cent of the workers are hired on a piece-work basis according to Donald and because of this most employees earn about $8.50 with some ear- ning more than $10 an hour. Details of the rejected of- fer were not known at press time neither was the results of attempts to go into mediation. v ~w~r .'~< v <I ~ /v~ ~ -j; g~ Talks are expected to resume sometime this week between Lake Ontario Con- crete Industries and its striking workers in an at- tempt to bring the three- week old dispute to an end. According to plant manager Frank Coppinger, the provincial mediator in- volved in the dispute is at- tempting to get both sides back to the bargaining table. "We'll agree to sit down again," hesaid. Last Friday morning the mediator had not contacted represen- tatives of the International Molders' and Allied Workers Union. While the union will not ask for a meeting, it will agree to attend one. "Now that we're here. there's no way we're going back," was the comment of one picketer. The plant's 20 workers walked off the job on March 5 to back demands for a 30 per cent an hour increase in the beginning of each year of a two year agreement. The company's last known offer was seven per cent in each of the two years. Under the old contract, workers earned a base wage of $6.94 an hour plus 94 cents an hour in cost of living benefits. The company is also known as LOCPipe and their agreement with the union expired last December 1. At press time it was not known when the talks would resume. ýl - rit::u %JLCIII rllqjt,%j