In early April of 2019, your Bargaining Committee began meeting in Union caucus to make bargaining preparations. 

In those preparatory meetings of the Bargaining Committee, we:

• Reviewed your submitted bargaining survey results so that we could better understand your priorities and guide our work;
• Evaluated the entire existing collective agreement and identified sections to propose improvements or appropriate updates;
• Assessed other collective agreements, benefits plans, and various supporting materials to evaluate against our current agreement and proposals;
• Met with members at BC Housing workplaces around the lower mainland, including: head office, LMDM and Riverview; 
• Met with members in other locations around the province, including: Victoria, Prince George and Penticton;
• Reviewed trends in grievances and heard input from stewards and your staff representative; and
• Brainstormed new proposals and ideas to bring forward to the bargaining table, including both monetary and non-monetary initiatives.

On May 31st, your Bargaining Committee met with the Employer to exchange our initial bargaining packages. We are confident that we have put forward a comprehensive package of proposals that reflect your bargaining priorities. The Employer also tabled proposals that required our careful consideration and review. 

Since then, we have been meeting with the employer on a regular basis, scheduling as many days for bargaining, as our schedules would allow. The scheduling has been difficult because your employer must also attend bargaining for the BC Housing Administrative/Clerical Division, whom are also in bargaining for a collective agreement.

Both Bargaining Committees have tabled a proposal to "meld" the two agreements. Should we be successful, this could potentially speed up the bargaining process as both agreements have a lot of common language.

We have successfully reached agreement on most of the non-monetary proposals, including updated job descriptions for every classification. We have also tabled all of our monetary proposals and shared a full exchange on all outstanding items. Although we are captured under the 2019 Sustainable Services Negotiating Mandate (PSEC), we are hopeful we will access all of the available money. We have been creative, thoughtful and determined in our approach at the bargaining table.

We were next scheduled to meet with the employer this week; however, as a result of the covid-19 pandemic and the need for social distancing, all meetings have been postponed at this time. Your Bargaining Committee is committed to getting back to the table as soon as conditions allow.

In the meantime, please contact any member of your Bargaining Committee with questions or concerns.

To help ensure you receive a copy of future updates, please provide a personal email address to the BCGEU at https://my.bcgeu.ca/signup. If we already have an email address on file for you and you wish to edit or update any of your existing contact information, you can use the same form.

In solidarity,
Doreen Aquino, Bargaining Committee Chairperson
Geoffery Harder, Bargaining Committee Member
Virgil Colley, Bargaining Committee Member 
Linsay Buss, Staff Representative - Negotiations

Download PDF of notice here.