A Toronto Star article reports today that York tabled a new offer to the Union, but that the Union was so unimpressed with it that it does not intend to take the offer to a vote of the membership. The Union is perfectly within its legal rights to decide when to hold a ratification vote of an employer offer. However, as I noted earlier, their are two exceptions to the general rule that the union decides which offers get voted on. They are the the government and the employer can require a vote on the employer’s last offer.
If York has reached its bottom line, perhaps it is time for it to exercise its right to order that vote of the membership. If it hasn’t reached its bottom line, we can only wonder when it might. The risk of ordering a ratification vote against the wishes of the union’s executive is that, if the membership rejects the employer’s offer, it may further alienate the workers from the employer.
If you were York, would you put your offer to the union’s membership?
