Half a million Ontario union members in bargaining this year

The report Ontario Collective Bargaining Agreement Expirations has just come out from the Ontario Ministry of Labour and it provides some interesting information on 2011 bargaining:

• There are 2,571 expiring collective agreements in 2011 covering 496,118 union members. This makes 2011 an average year (2004 saw 714,000 union members with expiring agreements, while2005 saw 328,000).  
• Expirations are concentrated in the months of January, March, June and December, with March and December especially big months.
• Broader Public Sector (BPS) agreements account for 48% of all agreements expiring in 2011 and cover approximately 68% of the total number of employees.  That's 278,296 BPS union members. 
• Major negotiations in the BPS for 2011 include hospitals (March, October), municipalities (March, December), nursing homes and homes for the aged (March, September), Toronto Transit Commission (March), GO Transit (June), universities (April, June), College Employer Council (support staff) (August), and Police Services Boards (December).
• Health and social services negotiations will include nursing homes, homes for the aged, the Canadian Red Cross (community health services), VHA Home Healthcare, and the Council of Academic Hospitals of  Ontario (CAHO) (negotiating with the Professional Association of Internes and Residents of Ontario -- PAIRO).
• As discussed yesterday, SEIU, ONA and OPSEU are all back in central bargaining with the Ontario Hospital Association.   
• SEIU also had significant nursing home and community services expiries in March. 
• CUPE has 309  agreements expiring, covering 89,228 members, or 18.0% of the total number of employees with expiring agreements.  This is the largest number of members of all the unions. Over 42,000 CUPE municipal workers will see there agreements expire at the end of the year. 
• ONA (representing Registered Nurses) and SEIU will  have a large percentage of their members in bargaining (60,000 and 42,000 members respectively).  
• In the private sector, the major collective agreements expiring are in the retail sector with UFCW (Pharma Plus Drug Mart, No Frills, Fortinos) and the CAW (Metro), and in the security services sector with UFCW and the USWA.   USWA also has a large number of members in the University sector who will see their agreements expire in June. 
• There are no major manufacturing agreements expiring this year. 

dallan@cupe.ca