Golf course grounds keepers are back on the greens and fairways at Quilchena Golf and Country Club after a lock out that stretched more than four months came to an end last Friday.
CUPE Local 4964 spokesperson Tom McKenna said the 19 union employees had planned increased action on the lock out line to disrupt the club's annual men's tournament on May 11 before talks culminated in a mediated agreement May 10 and a return to work Saturday.
The workers - many of them long-term employees - had been locked out since Feb. 4 and had been working without a contract since 2011.
McKenna said he believes the prospect of ramped up action by the locked out workers, bolstered by a small army of union supporters, played a role in getting an agreement ironed out.
"The men's tournament is usually seen as the start of golf season at the club," McKenna said. "And the idea of hundreds of union supporters gathered around the entrance and handing out leaflets in the surrounding neighbor-hood likely was a determining factor. It wouldn't have made a good first impression of the season for the club's members."
In the end, the agreement maintained that any changes in duties of golf club staff would not come at the cost of a layoff to the grounds staff.
McKenna said there had been concern from the golf course workers that work was being taken away from them. As a result, their numbers had spiraled down from 25 to the current 19.
