This is a bit of a heartbreak. If you recall, in Petawawa a few years ago the GDI cleaners were on strike for four months. Finally, they got a contract, and then when the contract was reviewed again, GDI was not the winning bidder.
What ended up happening was they brought in three contracts, and a company named Toure got two of them. Everything was going pretty well. There were two five-year contracts for nearly $8.5 million. However, around January of last year, the employer stopped paying their employees on time and properly. Their collective agreement specified it would be by electronic fund transfers, but they were getting cheques—they were getting paid to another employee, and then deposited into their account. It was just bonkers. The employees weren't able to get cleaning equipment—their cleaning supplies were getting drowned out from the providers, who weren't extending the credit anymore. They couldn't even use the company vehicles, which were stuck in garages that the company wasn't paying their bill for, so they ended up renting vehicles. It was a nightmare.
It came to a head around Christmastime. They simply stopped paying the employees. I had a member call me up telling me she was a grandmother and had intended to have the family over for Christmas, but couldn't afford groceries.