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Negotiators in Ontario’s unionized ICI sector say there’s a heightened commitment to harmony this spring compared to the past as they work to hammer out new three-year deals to replace contracts that expired April 30.

The latest unionized trades to report ratification of provincial deals were the painters, represented by the International Union of Painters & Allied Trades (IUPAT), and plumbers and steamfitters, represented by UA.

On April 30, 67.7 per cent of UA members voted to ratify a deal negotiated by the Ontario Pipe Trades Council with their employer bargaining agency, the Mechanical Contractors Association of Ontario.

The wage hike of 9.7 per cent over three years for Toronto-area workers surpassed the 8.0-per-cent raise negotiated by other unions in the provincial ICI sector including the Labourers’ and the Carpenters’.

The painters will also earn at least 8.0 per cent more over a new three-year contract ratified recently. The three-year deal includes a $4.50 total wage package. That equates to approximately eight per cent in the GTA and higher outside of the GTA.

Both David St. Louis, negotiator with the Ontario Painting Contractors Association, and Brad Hill, an executive with the Pipe Trades Council, said with economic disruption from the Donald

Trump administration hanging over the construction industry as well as threats from the non-union sector and subdued growth in the construction economy, the focus has been on avoiding overreach.

“We try to keep continuity,” said St. Louis. “We try to keep workers with a wage that they can support their families and that they want to come to work.

“That’s why, if you have a good relationship with the union that you’re dealing with, you could sit down and knock off a decent deal that helps you and your contractors, and it helps the union and their members, and that’s what we always try to do.”

Hill said it was his seventh time participating in province-wide negotiations and more than ever, the sessions this spring were characterized by the commitment to working together.

“That was the best one,” said Hill. “Everybody seemed to understand. I’m 40 years in the UA, and when I started, we were adversaries, the employers and us. Right now, we’re industry partners, and it shows.”

During the 2022 contract cycle there were five ICI strikes and nine times workers rejected proposed settlements. Under provincial legislation, all three-year contracts for Ontario’s 25 ICI construction trades expire on the same date.

The Daily Commercial News has been unable to reach representatives of the painters’ union or the bargaining agency for the employers of the plumbers and pipefitters for comment.

St. Louis said there were no landmark gains, “just sensible things for both of the parties.”

“You negotiate these numbers and you hope that for the sector that you’re in, it’s going to help you to be competitive,” St. Louis said.

“You try to do something that’s fair for the workers and for the companies, to keep them afloat and to keep them flourishing. But we know the biggest challenge is going to be the non-union, because their rates are always going to be lower anyway.”

The UA deal includes plumbers, steamfitters and pipe welders. Hill said ensuring worker mobility was a key issue along with wages.

“Basically, for us, it was wages, just trying to keep up to inflation and whatever is happening in the States, because we don’t know how that’s going to go,” said Hill.