ICBC – Update on Bargaining as of May 1, 2020 – Update #15

During last Monday’s telephone town hall (TTH), we reported to everyone on the call that ICBC’s bargaining committee continues to seek concessions from you.

These concessions including cutting your sick leave; capping your dental plan; and opening up your nine-day fortnight (9DFN) to being scheduled on any day of the week at your employer’s discretion, instead of only on Fridays (or a preceding day if Friday is a holiday) as is currently structured. Their proposal would greatly reduce, if not eliminate, the opportunity for three straight days of rest and could impact the majority of the staff on the 9DFN.

It was clear from the feedback we received on the TTH, along with emails, texts and phone calls we received before and after, that you do not want to give up the benefits we have fought for, and won, in the past. We delivered that message to ICBC’s bargaining committee on Friday, May 1, 2020 (one year to the date that we started bargaining) in a very clear and unequivocal way.

Our members, while wanting to continue to offer great service to the customers of ICBC, are not willing to sacrifice things that would devalue their collective agreement.

We hope to be back at the bargaining table later this week. We have let ICBC know we are available any time to talk meaningfully about getting a collective agreement signed.

We made it clear to them that we believe there is an agreement in the making, but we are not moving off our position of no concessions, especially when it comes to sick leave, benefits, and time off provisions.

Telephone Town Hall Survey

Last week, we sent out a survey to all ICBC members to get feedback on the telephone town hall. We want to hear not only from those who participated, but those who did not as well. Specifically, for those who did not participate, we want to ask why, and if there is anything we can do to make the process more accessible to more people.

As it was, we had over 1500 people on the call, about 1/3 of all members. If you were unable to listen in, I encourage you to talk to a co-worker or two. Chances are they did listen in and can tell you what we shared with the members.

Your ICBC bargaining committee:

Kevin Smyth, Senior Union Representative
Annette Toth, Vice-President, ICBC Unit
Colin Clark, Executive Board Member
Brenda Chu, Executive Board Member
Bryan Finstad, Executive Board Member
Melissa Maher, Executive Board Member
Gunter Seifert, Executive Board Member