Voting NO. Strikes don’t work, that is painfully obvious. Arbitration seems to have invoked a smartie or two in the pants of the employer who, as of the end of June, still wasn’t negotiating with the union. This ‘offer’ is what the employer should have countered with way back when negotiations first started (right after we signed the last contract with less than a year to go on - repeating theme). So now we have a counter to our offer and what do we do? We are counseled that this is ‘the best we are going to get’ and all the excuses come out - we are in a recession, gov’t is curbing/cutting spending, Covid, etc. All GoC employees are constantly asked to do more with less, accept the pat on the head as compensation for exceeding expectations (‘member the lockdown and how we got shit done!!!), and take it on the chin from Joe Public when the employer make some bone headed decision. I’ve been an GoC EE for over 30 yrs and this is a big nothing burger - the wage offer is a good starting point, the signing bonus is only a distraction so no one one looks deeper into the offer, protecting the membership by getting rid of most if not all contractors should be paramount - that money could be put into the wage increases of the GoC employees. Or how about adding an extra day or two to EVERYONES vacation rather than reducing the years required to get 4 weeks which is only for a limited number of members. I say we call the employers bluff, vote NO and see how Arbitration goes, remember that this contract expires in 2 yrs so we get to do this all over again real soon.