Bargaining
FortisBC Inc. – Bargaining Update #5
September 21, 2018
To: All MoveUP Members at FortisBC Inc
Employer offers Renewal of Collective Agreement for One Year
Memorandum of Agreement
We write to inform you that we have been presented with a Memorandum of Agreement to renew (roll over) the current collective agreement that is set to expire on December 31, 2018 for one year.
The proposed Memorandum of Agreement offers to renew the collective agreement effective January 1, 2019 to December 31, 2019, with a 2% wage increase.
The proposal also comes with a non-pensionable $500.00 dollar signing bonus.
All articles, terms, conditions, appendices, letters of understanding and supporting documents contained in the current collective agreement will remain unchanged until December 31, 2019.
Your bargaining committee met on Thursday, September 13, 2018 to begin preparations for the upcoming bargaining, which included analyzing the survey results and identifying articles in need of strengthening or changing.
Our discussions turned to the Employer’s proposal to roll over the collective agreement, which resulted in fulsome discussion. The roll over proposal comes at the request of the Employer in hopes of reigniting discussions around amalgamating the two separate bargaining units, FortisBC Energy Inc. and FortisBC Inc.
We believe that to be fully informed to entertain any discussions regarding such an endeavour, it serves the membership better to do so without it being attached to contract negotiations.
This is why we believe that to fully understand what amalgamation is, or what it may look like, or what is involved and how members will be affected, we are recommending acceptance of the tentative agreement to roll over the collective agreement for the one year term.
Your bargaining committee is recommending the acceptance of the tentative agreement attached here.
We will be holding ratification meetings and votes in Trail, Castlegar and Kelowna. Notification of dates and times will be in a follow-up bulletin coming shortly. Your bargaining committee will be in attendance to answer any questions you may have.
In Solidarity,
Your Bargaining Committee
Janet Maloff
Dean Temme
Kate Koczor
Richard Gaylard
Cindy A. Lee, Union Representative