Members of city council will hold a special meeting today to receive an update on negotiations with locked out technical and staging staff at Exhibition Place.
Nearly 400 members of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) Local 58 have been locked out since July 20.
The workers are typically responsible for some of the set up for the annual CNE but this year temporary workers were brought in to do that job, a decision that the union claimed was made at the expense of safety.
“The likelihood of misjudgment and mistakes are high, especially from a hastily assembled group just brought in and who are racing around the clock to meet very tight deadlines,” the union said in a press release issued last week.
Today’s meeting is being held after a petition signed by 23 members of council was submitted to the city clerk, as required by the rules governing such meetings.
It is the second special meeting in as many days after a day-long debate on Monday over planned legal action over the province’s plans to slash the size of city council.
Collective bargaining with IATSE Local 58 is the responsibility of the Exhibition Place board, which is made up of five city councillors and four members of the public.
