Workers reject tentative deal, still on strike at jet assembly plant at Pearson Airport in Mississauga, Ontario

Some 1,350 striking aircraft assembly workers at a huge new jet-building plant at Pearson Airport in Mississauga have rejected a tentative agreement with Montreal-based Bombardier that had been in place on Tuesday morning.

Unifor, which represents the unionized employees, said in a strike update on its website late Tuesday afternoon the workers “voted to reject a tentative agreement today.”

As a result, the brief statement continued, “strike action will continue at the company’s Aircraft Assembly Centre at Pearson International Airport and pre-flight operations facility at Waterloo Regional Airport.”

Workers have been on strike for just over one week after failing to come to terms on a new contract with the worldwide aircraft builder on June 22. The assembly plant workers then rejected what at the time was a final offer from the company on June 24.

Bombardier said on Tuesday morning the two sides had struck a tentative deal. No other details were provided at the time.

However, the two sides will now head back to negotiations in hopes of reaching a deal.

Bombardier’s new Global Manufacturing Centre, described by the Montreal-based international firm as a “state-of-the-art” final assembly plant for its line of Global business aircraft, completed its move from Downsview and opened at Pearson a few months ago.

The 770,000-sq.-ft. plant, the largest standalone structure built in the past two decades at Pearson Airport, cost in the neighbourhood of $670 million to construct. It houses several thousand workers whose finished products are sold around the globe.

As of late March, all operations had been moved to Pearson after the recent final closing of the old Downsview plant.