The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 213 has decided to take a few days before accepting or refusing after FortisBC tendered an offer of “Binding Interest Arbitration” to solve the five-plus month contract dispute.

Fortis employees have been on the picket line since June 26 when FortisBC locked out IBEW members.

FortisBC managers have done the normal union maintenance work since the dispute began.

The lockout has put more than 200 employees out in the cold(all with FortisBC Electric) — including electricians, linemen, millwrights, meter readers and office staff from Princeton to Creston and up through the Okanagan Valley to Winfield.

FortisBC and IBEW Local 213 have been without a contract since February 1st.

“The difficulty with entering binding arbitration with FortisBC is that the company will bring even more requirements to the table knowing that the arbitrator will be influenced to include almost all of them,” said an IBEW Local 213 statement.