NIAGARA-ON-THE-LAKE, Ontario—The Shaw Festival announced today that it is implementing a lockout of the employees represented by IATSE, Local 461 in the Shaw’s Facilities Department. These are the 16 employees that provide maintenance, grounds crew and housekeeping services. The lockout is effective at 5:00 p.m. on Wednesday, March 10, 2010 and is limited to the Facilities Department. The employees of the Production and Audience Sales and Services departments, whose contracts expired November 30, 2008, are not included in this lockout. The Shaw fest provided a statement surrounding the lock out. A representative for IATSE Local 461 could not be reached for comment, efforts are ongoing to get a statement from IATSE.

A statement from the Shaw Festival outlined the history of the lock out. According to the statement, after the Fest applied for conciliation with the Ontario Labour Relations Board a mediator was appointed. With the assistance of the mediator, the two parties were able to resolve outstanding issues around wages and benefits; but, according to the Fest’s statement, the union’s outstanding issue concerning “contracting out” of work in the Facilities Department remains unresolved. The Shaw maintains that it had already committed that there would be no contracting out of any work during the life of the collective agreement and provided additional protection for employees who were impacted by any layoffs in the future. This was not acceptable to the members of the bargaining unit and IATSE, Local 461. 

The Shaw Festival has advised IATSE, Local 461 that it is prepared to return to the bargaining table immediately to negotiate the Production and Audience Services collective agreements and maintains that it has not taken any action to lock out employees in those departments. According to the Fest’s statement IATSE, Local 461 continues to maintain its position that it will not negotiate the Production and Audience Sales and Services contracts until the parties have reached agreement on the Facilities Department contract.

Shaw Fest Executive Director Colleen Blake noted: “We wish this issue could be resolved at the bargaining table. To date, we have not been able to do that. Reluctantly, we have made this difficult decision.”

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