June 2, 2023 – Cochrane, Ontario: CUPE in Cochrane Ontario provide authorization to strike if required to it’s negotiating team. The Town’s reaction to this is:

We respect the employees desire to strike if they feel it’s necessary. The Town will make all reasonable efforts to avoid a strike and will continue to work together with our employees on finding reasonable common ground as usual.

The reality is that these negotiations impact about 60% of the Town’s total budget and lock that in long term. This can directly impact our ability to appropriately address some other critical priorities we are facing as well. While we work to address our workforces needs, we are also hyper focussed on housing, doctors, and road rehabilitation. All of which require significant resources to effectively address. There are some critical and difficult choices to make for the Town and each choice we will need to be both an informed and responsible one.

We look forward to continuing to sit with our employees to discuss this together and find that all important common ground.

Contacts:
Peter Politis, Cochrane Mayor, 705-272-9527; Peter.Politis@cochraneontario.com