Bargaining
BCFed-September 20 Membership Meeting to Discuss Bargaining
September 15, 2022
To: All MoveUP members at BC Federation of Labour
Further to the membership meeting held on September 6, 2022, your bargaining committee has reported on the state of negotiations. As discussed, the Parties are currently at impasse on work-from-home policy and fair wage increases, among other issues.
Despite multiple discussions over nearly 10 days at the table regarding our immediate concerns over the inflationary crisis and its impact on your ability to live where you work, the Employer has made zero effort to bargain fairly and in context of the current economy and labour market.
We sought 5/5/5 with COLA adjustments in general wage increases, they countered with 2.5/2.5/2.5.
We final offered the Employer with 5/3/3 and COLA adjustments capped at an additional 1%, a very reasonable offer on monetary settlement considering the current environment. They countered with 3.25% on a rollover agreement. That’s not even half way to the forecasted annual inflation rate for our region. Not even close.
Our final offer included WFH policy that would prevent the Employer from administering the program unreasonably or unfairly. They countered with removing the entire proposal from the table, stating that it was “not worth the hassle”.
You’ve likely already heard that USW2009 recently ratified their tentative agreement. It included increases to severance pay, vacation leave, in lieu days, an additional 1.25% in wage increases, a $750.00 signing bonus and WFH policy. All items that were included in our final offer of settlement that they are refusing to negotiate on.
The Employer has since applied for mediation at the board, and we’ve been appointed a mediator. We’ve advised both the mediator and the Employer that we don’t anticipate mediation will be very effective without the actual decision makers, the principals (the officers) present during mediation discussions.
The Employer has advised that no principal will be present for these discussions, which we consider an indication that they aren’t taking the situation seriously.
Mediation is currently scheduled for September 29, 2022.
We will be going forward with a strike vote next week as the Employer’s action to date does not instill much faith that mediation will be productive or that the Employer has reconsidered their devaluing of your work and frankly anti-union approach to monetary negotiations and our mandate.
You should know that under the current Code requirements, and with a successful strike mandate from the membership, we cannot issue strike notice until either party ends mediation and provides 48 hours notice.
We will be holding a membership meeting on Tuesday to go over all of this information with you, with the strike vote to be held later on next week. Please make every effort to attend this meeting.
The membership meeting will be held over Zoom. The meeting details are as follows:
Date: Tuesday, September 20, 2022
Time: 12 p.m. – 1 p.m.
Place: Zoom (click here to register for the meeting)
In solidarity,
Maria Peralta, Job Steward
Nathan Beausoleil, Union Representative
Christy Slusarenko, Vice-President, Combined Units