Bargaining
FortisBC – Bargaining Update #7
January 23, 2024
To: All MoveUP members at FortisBC
For those who were not able to attend Thursday evening’s unit meeting, I write to give you a more detailed update about the renegotiation of your collective agreement.
So far, the union and the employer have met for 12 days of negotiations. As our preferred method is to deal with non-monetary matters first, we have presented the employer with a package of our non-monetary proposals. We believe they have given us all their proposals, both monetary and non-monetary, except that they have not yet made offers regarding wage increases or the duration of the agreement.
The employer’s proposals are deeply concessionary. Among other things, they are proposing the removal of our language regarding respect in the workplace, drastic extensions of the limits on the length of temp contracts, and the deletion of Letter of Understanding 42. As we have not yet worked through our non-monetary proposals, we have not yet discussed how the employer would propose to implement the deletion of the LOU.
The employer also put forward some points for discussion, which may or may not result in proposals. We have spent a considerable amount of time digging into these issues, trying in good faith to understand their goals and whether our negotiations can include them.
Frustratingly, despite having put considerable work into discussing the employer’s concerns, apart from agreeing to a few housekeeping issues they have to date declined to respond to us about any of the proposals we have tabled.
As we move forward, we will work to narrow the focus at the table and to push the employer to begin discussing our proposals, which address the key concerns you identified to us in your bargaining surveys.
At present, we have six bargaining dates confirmed and seven unconfirmed in February and March, with an additional eight confirmed in April and May. We will continue to look for opportunities to move the process forward and will bring you further updates as we progress.
In solidarity,
Thank you for your support and solidarity,
Your Bargaining Committee:
Norm Stickelmann, Executive Board Member
Michelle Simister, Executive Councillor
Charlie Lee, Executive Councillor
Lea McNaughton, Executive Councillor
Paul Voykin, Union Representative
April Young, Union Representative
