Bulletin
Nimbus School of Recording & Media – Bargaining 101
April 26, 2021
To: All MoveUP members at Nimbus
Your union and Nimbus School of Recording & Media will be heading to the bargaining table to negotiate your first collective agreement.
I’m writing to offer a quick introduction to the bargaining process.
Your bargaining committee
Before we can begin proposal preparations, you must select your bargaining committee.
The bargaining committee will consist of two (2) members, comprised of two (2) job stewards. Your union representative will also sit on the committee to lead negotiations.
We need your voices at the table and your input into the process, so if you are interested in becoming a job steward and would like to sit on the committee, or if you would like to nominate a job steward please email Vice-President Christy Slusarenko.
Bargaining survey
The first bargaining survey will be distributed to you at your home email address shortly, therefore it is very important that we have your most current contact information. You can update us here.
The survey asks a series of questions about your work and conditions of employment. It is designed to find out what is good about your current working conditions and what could be improved upon.
It’s incredibly important for you to offer your input to your bargaining committee members, and the survey results will be shared with the committee once they are nominated and elected\acclaimed.
Proposals
Your committee will take all of the information they have collected from the surveys, along with the one-on-one feedback they’ve heard from fellow union members and draft a series of proposals. While working on proposals, the committee will keep a few things in mind:
• What are the top priorities for the majority of members?
• What do they think is possible to achieve?
• Are the workers united and willing to stand up to defend the rights they have or to make gains?
It’s a balancing act: no one ever gets everything, but a skillful committee backed up by a determined membership can move the ball forward.
Of course, the employer will bring their own proposals to the table. It’s the bargaining committee’s job to decide if those proposals are in the best interests of their coworkers.
Exchanging proposals
When the employer and the union meet to exchange proposals they often start with the easier issues first before moving to more difficult subjects, often referred to as non-monetary items. Items like wages and benefits – anything dealing with money – are generally the last to be discussed and these are known as monetary items.
If an agreement is reached:
Your bargaining committee and the employer will declare they have a tentative first time agreement. The agreement will then come to you, the members, for the final decision.
The bargaining committee will tell you if they are recommending the agreement. Then it’s your choice to decide whether or not you will vote for or against accepting the agreement.
If the majority of your coworkers vote to accept the agreement, you have your first collective agreement.
If you don’t accept the agreement, the bargaining committee and the employer may return to the table or the situation can get more serious. If this is the case, one or both sides may consider some type of job action to turn up the pressure to reach an agreement.
If an agreement can’t be reached:
If the Parties are at an impasse and cannot agree on the terms for a new collective agreement, one of several things may happen.
The union may decide to ask for a strike vote, which would authorize you to take some sort of job action, ranging from a ban on overtime to a full strike walk-out. The employer has that right too and can issue lockout notice.
But the overwhelming majority of all agreements – over 95 per cent – are concluded without job action.
The parties may apply for mediation, to get a neutral third party to help. Or, in rare circumstances, both sides are ordered into binding arbitration, where an arbitrator decides the last outstanding issues.
I hope this brief introduction to bargaining answers any questions you may have and makes the process clear.
If you have any further questions or comments, please contact me by phone or email me at nbeausoleil@moveuptogether.ca.
In solidarity,
Nathan Beausoleil
Union Representative