Around a hundred workers at Airbus Atlantique Canada’s Mirabel plant rejected a salary offer from their employer as part of the renewal of their collective agreement by a vote of more than 98%.

The 105 members in question, represented by the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAMAW), manufacture the center section of Bombardier’s Global series aircraft.

Since they had no employment contract since September 30, they rejected their employer’s offer with a rate of 98.8%, their union said on Sunday obviously didn’t live up to expectations of its members.

If we look at the result of the vote, it is clear that it was not adoptedemphasized in an interview the economic representative of District 11 of the IAMAW, Éric Rancourt, who is responsible for the negotiations for the Airbus Atlantic unit.

In its offer, the employer proposed a three-year employment contract that provided employees with a salary increase of 3% in the first year and a salary increase from CPI + 0.5% up to 3% in the following two years.

However, according to Mr Rancourt, this offer does not take into account the reality of the last two years, which fell under the old collective agreement and in which workers received salary increases below inflation.

On April 24, 2021, employees signed their first collective agreement. We know that between April 24, 2021 and today there was a pandemic and inflation reached record highs. So we want to catch up.

The union also wants to make progress on other working conditions for the affected workers, as other workers at the same Airbus Atlantique Canada factory who work in the cockpits of the Airbus A220 have a different collective agreement that is better in some respects.

According to Mr Rancourt, it goes without saying that workers from both groups working in the same factory are entitled to similar working conditions.

When comparing the two collective agreements, the advantages are significantly greater. However, they do the same work in the same factory for the same employer.he complained.

Despite the rejection of the offer presented on Sunday, intensive talks between the two parties will continue this week.

The union assures that it will continue to work with the employer to find a negotiated solution, but has also given itself a strike order, so it does not rule out increasing its pressure depending on how the situation develops.