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Unfortunately our spea executive are only worried about those at site, ... Double time, travel time, t&c's, LOU's , relocation, etc,......all spea's focus is on the site guys and their benefits, not the "majority" ....reminder..only 15-20% of our membership are site monkey's.... How about you guys focus on the rest of us and get something we can all benefit from !!!!

Let's re-vote on the strike mandate,......94% get real!!!!

this whole CANDU vs SPEA battle won't mean shiet.

Ontario is already committed to other sources of power. Wind power is going to fart at your nuclear jobs.

The issue of the long lasting dispute between SNC and SPEA to its root is SNC's determination to bust the union, and its attitude towards its technical staff represented by SPEA. They treat SPEA and its members with no respect and is trying to squeeze dry the people who work hard to make money for the company. Even with a more than 94% of a strike mandate from the SPEA members, SCN has stepped up its bullying and is unilaterally implementing its concessions. I think SPEA has been too nice to this greedy new owner, they should wake up and take some real actions!

Since when is unilaterally giving pay raises to the full range of SPEA members considered "stepping up its bullying"? The membership had been pointing out that they hadn't recieved any pay increases since 2010 and here is the bully granting two pay raises since January 2012.

SNC will not budge & may in fact cut more into current Employee perks. By cutting the O/T they are extending work available. There are no new reactor contracts. Hence the management can easily manage without serious disruptions, in case of a strike. SPEA may be having second thoughts about strike itself & trying to find an honourable exit out of it!. .

SPEA may have taken a strike mandate just to have bargaining clout. But 24 days later the Management appears to be still in a Dictatorial Mode. If SPEA do strike, it may be a long drawn out one. Is SPEA prepared for this Slug-Fest??

SPEA execs should be carefull with the things they say in the media portraying SNC and CANDU  as a brutal organization. When Candu responded that SPEA is damaging the image of the organization and may adversely affect it's business, it can only mean one thing: Possible lawsuit  for Libel or demation.

Ivanco and White should step aside now before things go from bad to worse. They are engineers not professional negotiators. For the sake of of its members they shoud let the pros handle it.

SPEA should let PSAC do their negotiating for them.  Alternatively, they could go back to rejoin the Society of Energy Professionals.  Both PSAC and SEP have professional negotiators on staff, and either one would have better success than SPEA has demonstrated until now.

The good time as government owned company's employees is the past. Please move on.

The Candu employee  would have to realize, they are, like other SNC's employees,  now owned by a private company, who will not taking money out of their own pocket to support the luxury benefits the government used to offer them. Especially workers in SNC's other more profitable divisions do not have such luxury benefits.

It is also not fair if SNC does offer CANDU more benefits than other divisions by using the money other divisions make to cover such cost (as it is well known, AECL was losing money before being sold to SNC.  It may become profitable in the future, but at least now it is not as profit as SNC's other divisions yet.)

Only when they are making more money for SNC than other divisions can they have the negotiation power of askingmore benifits than other divisions.  The reality is brutal.

It appears that privatization of AECL automatically meant revision of the grades of Engineering staff. Current situation may be the first step, Next step - look out for standardization of all salaries to new lower grades in line with the rest of the SNC staff. Some staff who got accelerated promotions just before the AECL sale might be demoted to their right grades.So bigger changes are not too far!.That is the reality for SPEA to consider.

Both Federal and Provincial government are cutting payrolls themselves, even in their core sectors. AECL being privatized may not be a bad thing in the long run. The bottom line, CANDU needs to be profitable to be able to survive in the real business world.  

The Union tried to brought the customers into the labor issue is really not the wise decision. If this were to upset the customers and sacrifice CANDU's reputation,  it would eventually hurt the employee themselves in the future. After all, CANDU is only a division of SNC. SNC has been quite profitable before purchasing CANDU (look at their stock), and it can walk away and shut down CANDU if it is proved to be not profitable (or even a burden).  

If the worst case as above, government sure won't buy AECL back, and it appeared SNC was the only one offered to purchase AECL last year, nobody else was interested - I doubt anybody else would buy CANDU if  it is proved SNC could not turned it around and is to get rid of it.

However,  being in the tough global economical environment, in a downward nuclear industry after Japan's disaster,  how many experienced nuclear engineers can find another decent professional job soon? And if they finally get one in the private sectors in other industries, they are sure to get the ordinary benefits same as other private sector's employees. It could well be much worse than the current SNC's benefit packages.

The union felt they were treated by SNC like in the third world countries, but I am wondering if they have any friends and family members working in the private companies in Canada. Have they ever compared SNC's benefits with those in the private sectors? If they do, they will know how the real business world looks like.

I think if CANDU's employees get fair standard benefits similar to other engineers in SNC's other profitable divisions in Canada, they should take it. SNC as a big profitable company, the benefit packages are competitive comparing to many other mid size or small size companies in Canada.

Ontario teachers, doctors, CP workers, Air Canada workers..., every one is asked to tighten their belts. (Their did not change ownership, are more essential and have more negotiation power).

The economic is not picking up, and can go worse in the future, why SPEA execs felt so bad when they were facing the similar thing? Luckily enough they still have a job, many professionals, new graduates could not even find a professional job.

Since the Engineers with the Reactor design experience have retired, the present Candu Energy is in a very weak bargaining position with <5% of Engineers with actual design experience - no new reactor contracts since the Chinese reactors in 1995. SPEA is on a slippery surface when it claims the existing expertise- which is mainly in refurbishing, not in designing.In the best case scenario, SPEA should fight for minimizing the benefits being taken away. Whatever Wage increase is offered is a bonus.In all industries, wage increases are zero or negative. .

SPEA should call for strike before being dumped by the feds. At least they would negotiate with the government, not private companies who are in business for the sake of making money.

It's sad really.  This should be a negotiation over a contract, but it seems to be turning into a battle over control of the company.  The harsh reality is that the Harper government sold AECL as an alternative to closing it down, and SNC was the only one prepared to buy it even if that meant being paid to take it.  If there was a strong business, then buyers would have been lining up.  They weren't.  So, the reality is that every Candu Energy employee should be grateful to SNC for having given them a second chance, and be looking for every opportunity to change the financial health of the company.  Instead, there seems to be a significant group who believe the sale can be reversed, and who believe the best approach is to sabotoge the company.  Sad.

Unfortunately, SPEA is not in a good bargaining position because the business is weak.  There is no near-term likelihood of Ontario buying a reactor of any sort, and G2 has effectively decided not to refurbish.  Bruce Power lost bags of money refurbishing units 1 & 2, and is unlikely to do much refurbishment until Darlington is well into its refurbishment.  Meanwhile, Candu Energy only has a small piece of the Darlington job and that cannot be reversed.  The refurb in Argentina has already staffed up, which leaves the Romanian reactors as the only big job that might surface this year.  Meanwhile, Candu Energy has hundreds of people scheduled to come off existing jobs (EC6, Argentina) starting later this year with no clear prospects for finding them jobs.  The only hope is to increase services work, but there are many competitors who do very good work at much lower prices.  And yes, one of the reasons they cost less is because of "rights" in the SPEA contract.

SNC and Candu Energy are in business to make money, and SPEA exists to protect its members.  Both sides should have a common objective: make the business a commercial success.  Turning this negotiation into a battle of wills over control of the company is a fundamental disservice to both parties, it doesn't matter which one does it.