THUNDER BAY -- More than 200 Bombardier employees returned to work at the local plant Monday without incident, but union officials say the company is forcing some employees to take vacation time until they’re recalled.
Unifor Local 1075 spokesman CJ Hanlon said about 200 people returned to work Monday morning with everyone expected to be back to work by Sept. 29.
In the return-to-work protocol agreed to by both the union and Bombardier, Hanlon said workers were supposed to be given the choice whether they would use holiday time in the two weeks.
“People have been told they are forced to use their holidays if they’re off for the one week or the full two weeks,” Hanlon said, adding the agreement also calls for workers to return to work by seniority, which also isn’t happening.
“It’s a lot of confusion happening right now,” he said.
“All we can do when everyone is back is grieve it and hope we can get them at least some vacation time back.”
Bombardier spokeswoman Stephanie Ash said the company is asking people with five to six weeks of vacation to take that time now.
“During a shutdown, which we usually have during a summertime period, employees will take their vacation time. That obviously didn’t happen because there was the labour disruption,” she said.
“We’re asking them if they would consider taking their vacation time now so that they get paid while they’re still not back to work.”
When it comes to seniority, Ash said the company is recalling people based on a needs basis and the first people returning to the plant are mostly those in primary parts, tooling and maintenance.
“We have to have primary parts built at the site first before we can start assembling any products. After several weeks of labour disruption, we don’t have primary parts, so we’re returning people back based on priority and according to production needs,” said Ash.
For those employees not immediately returning to work, Hanlon said Unifor National will still be paying them the $250 per week of strike pay until they are physically back at work in the plant.
