Weekly Update: March 2 - March 8

Telus Bargaining Committee begins Work:Even though the Telus Collective Agreement doesn’t expire for another year, we’ve already elected a Bargaining Committee and they are hard at work. For three days last week we held bargaining training together, had some foundational strategy discussions, and worked on our Bargaining Survey which will be out soon. Your Telus Bargaining Committee is David Rankin from Montreal, Robin Navin from Calgary, Neil Marshall from Abbotsford, myself as Local President, our Local Rep Steve McWhirter, and USW Staff Rep Jayson Little.

Latest Grievance Resolves

Once in a while I want to let you know about recent grievance resolves to give you an idea of what the Local has been working on. We’ve reached these resolves just in the last two weeks:

At ADT by Telus, a member was off on a leave for an extended period and should have received a wage increase during their sickness and then another one a couple months after they were back. Management only provided the one wage increase once he was back. This was a misinterpretation of the Collective Agreement and was grieved. The member recently received the augmented two wage increases and retroactive pay for the difference. This was resolved at 1st level by the shop steward, who is in fact Acting Trustee Isabelle Chayer, well done.

A member agreed to work past their shift end time to cover for another member who called in sick, however, at first they didn’t receive their overtime premium as management argued that they needed to complete their whole additional shift to get it. That’s not actually how the relevant overtime provision works, the issue was grieved, and the member ended up receiving their premium. This grievance was also resolved by a shop steward at 1st level, well done Lesley Holland.

A member was not told by management of a scheduling process change, and that change deprived the member of the ability to work a statutory holiday shift. At first the Union and Telus couldn’t reach an agreement on the issue, and so it was referred to arbitration, but at that point the company reached out to resolve the issue and the member was granted the pay they had missed out on due to company error.

In Solidarity,

Michael Phillips

President

USW Local 1944