We are writing to update the membership on bargaining that is occurring as part of the successorship agreement with the Ministry of Transportation.

To-date members have voted to approve (ratify) collective agreements in seven highway maintenance service areas and we have a tentative agreement in one more (ratification meetings are scheduled). Therefore, we have 17 left to go and we have scheduled bargaining dates for 11 of those in this calendar year – with plans for the remaining areas in the first few months of 2018. If you have not heard about bargaining dates in your area, please check with your bargaining committee to see if dates have been set.

Current bargaining is for the next collective agreements and has no impact on your existing collective agreement.

The reason we are bargaining these agreements early is to ensure that successorship is included in the Request for Proposal (RFP) for each highway maintenance area. Government has issued a mandate that for successorship to be included, ratified collective agreements must be in place at least 60 days prior to the release date of the RFP. It is anticipated that RFPs will be released 12 months prior to the expiry of the existing contracts.

For the seven areas where we have ratified collective agreements, the Ministry of Transportation has advised us that the RFPs are expected to be released in early November, December and January. We will update the membership on the specific dates when they are known.

In addition to requiring a ratified agreement in advance, the agreement must include provisions that we negotiated at the provincial level. These details are provided to each bargaining committee as they prepare for bargaining, however they are currently not available otherwise – as per our agreement with the BC Road Builders and the Ministry of Transportation. We continue to ask for your patience in this regard and assure you that each committee will have full details in order to prepare for bargaining, including matters brought forward by the membership in your area.

Members in each area will have an opportunity to review all the changes for the next collective agreement and vote on it.

Here is a quote from a bargaining committee chair with a ratified collective agreement:

The committee and the members are very positive about the outcome. My advice is to trust the process. There is a lot of positive background work that was done on this for successorship. This enables us to keep moving forward.

- Ted Williams, Bargaining Unit Chair for Service Area 3

Finally, we are still seeking your input on this round of bargaining. If you have not yet had a chance to complete the 5-minute survey, you can fill it out here:

https://survey.bcgeu.ca/highways_2017

In Solidarity,

Rory Smith, BCGEU Vice President for Component 10 – Operational Services
Dave Maki, Component 10 Executive Member
Frank Anderson, BCGEU Coordinator assigned to Component 10