This committee consisted of Lynda Busby (chair), Philip Lillies, Frances Epp, Kelly Thomas and Danielle Golden.
Over the past 2 weeks the committee met, collected and expanded upon your bargaining proposals as you provided in our October survey. The committee worked hard and diligently on this task. We are not often asked to prepare proposals for collective bargaining. Our committee completed this task early and with quality results. I applaud your efforts. Thank you!
The Survey Results
The survey was responded to by 57 members representing 23% of our local membership. This was a great response rate. There was also good representation from all classifications.
The top 5 priorities in the survey were:
- job security
- wage increases
- benefits
- leave with pay for family responsibilities
- workforce adjustment
Based on your comments from the survey the committee created 21 proposals for the EB group and 23 proposals for the PA group. The major themes in the proposals were:
- Leave, including sick leave and compassionate care leave,
- Job security, including workforce adjustment,
- Wage increases, and
- Workplace democracy
Please contact me at President70155@gmail.com if you wish to review the proposals that were submitted to the Agriculture Union.
Next Steps
We have now submitted our local's proposals to the Agriculture Union which will be accepting as many as 1850 proposals from its 74 locals for each bargaining group. The Agriculture Union will have the enormous task of sorting and selecting the best 25 to pass on to the PSAC which in turn may receive as many as 425 proposals for each bargaining group from their 17 components.
The PSAC's National Bargaining Conference will be held in February in Ottawa.
Some Answers to your Questions asked in our survey
Q. Why does the collective bargaining process and negotiations take so long?
A. Your union prepares months in advance of the expiry date of your collective agreement. For example, for this round, the locals were advised to prepare their bargaining demands in September, over 9 months before the June 2014 expiration date of the PA and EB collective agreements. Delays are due to the Employer, that is Treasury Board not the PSC, stalling or refusing to set dates for negotiations and talks.
Q. Regarding the 7.5 hours of leave for legal matters. Is it part of the 37.5 hours of family leave or is it an additional 7.5 hours?
A. The 7.5 hours of leave for legal matters is part of the 37.5 hours of family leave per the PA collective agreement. See your PA collective agreement article 43.03(e).
Q. How can I get more specific information?
A. If you ever have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact your local president at President70155@gmail.com. He will be more than happy to arrange a private meeting to meet with your work team to discuss your issues and answer your questions.
Q. How can I get more timely communication?
A. Your local uses different communications methods to try to meet the different communications needs of our members. This includes bulletin boards, a web site, an RSS feed, email messages, Facebook, Twitter, membership meetings, lunch and learns, small group meetings, telephone calls, and individual face to face meetings. If there is another method that you need please do not hesitate to contact me at President70155@gmail.com and I will make the necessary arrangements to ensure that your communication needs are met.
Q. How do I get this information even sooner?
A. In addition to what, how and when your local communicates with you, you may also wish to ensure that you receive information bulletins from the PSAC national office and the PSAC NCR regional office available by web site, RSS feed, email message, Facebook and Twitter. These 2 sources will provide the most up to date information.
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