Starlight Casino (Gateway) - Tentative agreement reached

This is to inform you that the Employer and your Union bargaining committee were able to reach a tentative agreement at about 8:30 pm on Thursday, May 6^th.

The parties went into this process to spend as much time as possible over a four week period to see if we could get a tentative agreement in place. It worked.

We are pleased with this tentative agreement and we are unanimously recommending the members acceptance. We brought forward the issues that the membership told us were of most importance, and we did all we could to achieve progress on each. We did not get everything we wanted, but what we did achieve is a good first agreement that will form a strong foundation into the future.

The Employer and Union counsel are working through the final administrative aspects of the tentative agreement and we anticipate that a full ratification report will be issued to the mailing addresses we have sometime next week. The ratification report will include all provisions that the parties agreed to that will make up your first Collective Agreement. We are also working on setting up the meeting and voting dates and times for the ratification process. We are hoping to do this at the worksite.

The process will be that the members receive the ratification report; and after having an opportunity to review the contents of the report and formulate questions, meetings will be held where members can ask those questions and seek clarification.

To ratify the Agreement, members will need to vote on acceptance or rejection. As mentioned earlier, we are unanimously recommending acceptance.

For the Agreement to be ratified, a simple majority of 50% plus one of those who vote, is needed.

The Agreement would expire on March 31, 2012. There are wage increases retroactive to April 1^st; improvements on the health and welfare benefits and a series of provisions that provide for more flexibility in scheduling and vacations. As mentioned, the full details will follow next week.

In solidarity

Wei Chen, Bargaining Committee Member                   Rebecca Conroy, Bargaining Committee Member

Lea Oliver-Cross, Bargaining Committee Member       Mark Robertson, Bargaining Committee Member

William Wu, Bargaining Committee Member               Davinder Yadeta, Bargaining Committee Member

Mike Orders, Staff Representative, Negotiations

cc:   Dave MacDonald, Comp. 17 Chairperson; Anthony Davies, Staff Representative; Muriel Labine, Staff Representative

Click here for pdf of bulletin.