Labour Day parade not ending at CNE to show solidarity with locked-out workers
TORONTO — Marchers in Toronto’s annual Labour Day Parade broke tradition on Monday, opting not to end the procession at Exhibition Place to show solidarity with stagehands who have been locked out of the venue since July.
“We’re not going to cross that picket line. We’re going to support the workers by not taking our members through that picket line and (not) having them go to the Ex like we normally do,” said Naureen Rizvi, Unifor’s regional director for Ontario.
Exhibition Place’s board of directors and the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees Local 58, which represents about 400 workers, said talks over the weekend broke down.
Both sides of the negotiations said they were unsuccessful after a 12-hour meeting on Saturday that focused on the locked-out employees’ contract.