September 14, 2020 - Today’s bargaining session opened with comments from the Local’s President Donna Hokiro followed by those from the Company. This is an extremely unique round of bargaining in that the parties are not all in the same room together. Your committee were all together in a socially distanced fashion in the large boardroom at the Union office with President Hokiro in Edmonton who joined the deliberations virtually. Shaw’s committee was together in a large boardroom at a Shaw office. We are using Zoom video conferencing.
Both parties expressed a desire to achieve a respectful agreement and that if talks break down, we’d follow the federally regulated process of conciliation at the Board prior to any labour dispute action.
As is common in most rounds of bargaining, the monetary proposals will not be exchanged until the non-monetary topics are dealt with. As you all know, money gets dealt with last.
Both sides at the table have had a chance to clarify the intent of their tabled proposals and will spend tomorrow preparing responses.
These are the things discussed today that we will engage more fully on:
• Overtime Meals
• Banked OT
• Warehouse Position
• TVH Policy
• Severance Pay/Automation
• CPE
• GDOs
• Aligning agreement end date with Vancouver and Surrey
As always, solidarity is the key to all successfully negotiated contracts and we look forward to seeing the solidarity actions!
#NoFear
In solidarity,
Your bargaining team
Keller Reeves
Rob Wall James
Large Steve McWhirter – Local Union Representative
Jayson Little – Staff Representative
Scott Lunny – Staff Representative
Donna Hokiro – National President
#NoFear