Holiday Gift Cards

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This year in order to reach more of our members as we celebrate the holidays we’re going to be giving out gift cards instead of the meal we’ve done in the past.

Members will be able to pick them up by the public elevators on:

December 5 from 11am to 7pm

December 6 7am to 12pm

December 12 8:30am to 3:30pm

New Trustees

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At the October general meeting nominations were opened for each of the trustee positions. In each case one person was nominated.  Our newly elected trustees are:

Karen Polischuk – 1 year term
Peggy Vincent – 2 year term
Andrew Martin – 3 year term

New: Interest Arbitration

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Dear Sisters and Brothers:

We have just received the Interest Arbitration Award on April 30 2015.

Now that the Award has been issued the Employer is obligated to provide all retroactive wage adjustments within 120 calendar days (by August 28th) of issuance of the Award.

The agreed to general salary increases are: Ÿ  2.5% effective April 1, 2014Ÿ2.5% effective April 1, 2015

Ÿ  2.0% effective April 1, 2016

As well there is an additional 2% long service increment effective October 1, 2014, for all employees once they reach over 20 years of service and are at the top of their pay scale.

The Award is lengthy and requires careful review. We are providing you with these highlights. A full analysis will be provided in the immediate future.

The Arbitrator ruled in favour of the Union with respect to the DSM Medical Lab Assistants who have been incorrectly paid for several years. This means a significant wage increase for these members.

He did not rule in favour of the Union with respect to the Union’s proposal on amending the vacation to working days from our existing block vacations. Part of his rationale for not awarding the Union’s proposed language was that he felt that there should be further attempts by the Parties (the Employer and the Union) to negotiate these types of operational changes before an arbitrator should impose an award on the parties.

The Award was not in our favour with respect to the shift premiums consistent with the recent MNU settlement as the Arbitrator felt that the historical pattern supported the Employer’s position and that other health care support unions had agreed to the shift premium proposal submitted by the Employer.

The Arbitrator ruled in favour of the Employer with respect to continuing the practise of the employee paying both the employee’s and Employer’s benefit contributions when on an unpaid leave of absence.

The Award is in favour of the Union regarding the general salary increases for the childcare workers at Mount Carmel Clinic. The Employer argued that some of these employees’ general salary increases should be tied to the Employer receiving funding increases for this program. The Union argued that these employees should receive the same general salary increases as all other CUPE health care support workers. The Arbitrator states: “I am concerned that this group of workers is being negatively impacted by funding issues through no fault of their own. The necessary funding should be found. These employees provide a valuable service at a highly respected facility which serves the less fortunate of the city.”

Overall, this award gives CUPE members two significant gains that we would not have achieved without interest arbitration. On the issues that we did not achieve what we were seeking, the Arbitrator’s ruling places us in a very good position going into future rounds of negotiations.

There will be more in depth details and discussions to follow but we knew that you would all want to receive this information as quickly as possible.