On May 24, your bargaining committee was joined by Component 4 Vice President Mahen Ramdharry to answer questions about the tentative agreement reached with your employer. Following a “No” voting result, we wanted to engage members to find out why you voted no, and what action you’d like to take going forward, including possibly taking a strike vote.
 
We heard from members that main concerns were that the tentative agreement had no wage increases, no day shift premium, and no pension.
 
Wages:
 
We did not bargain for wage increases in this round because wage-leveling is still in place. If wage-levelling ends, your agreement would expire, and we would return to the bargaining table to negotiate fair wages.
 
We bargained for the collective agreement to expire so that you have power if your Employer doesn’t agree on fair wages at the end of wage-levelling. This way you can start job action, like wearing a button with a slogan, refusing overtime, or going on strike to get fair wages.
 
Any increases to wages that your bargaining committee could have negotiated that were less than your wage-levelled rate would not have gone to members and would have gone to the government. Instead, we bargained for other monetary gains that will go directly to you.
 
Pension:
 
In every round of bargaining, we have proposed that your Employer apply to the BC Target Benefit Pension Plan, and your Employer has refused. We do not think this is achievable without going on strike to show your employer how important this is to you.
 
Shift Premiums:
 
The night shift premium will now cover all hours worked between 5pm and 8am, 7 days a week. We negotiated this premium because we thought it would help the most people. For example, if your shift starts at 7am, you will earn this premium from 7am to 8am.
 
Province wide, there are no collective agreements that have a premium for shifts Monday – Friday from 7am to 3pm. This is an industry wide standard, and we do not think that this would change, even if you vote to go on strike.
 
Expanding the night shift premium is a foot in the door for the next round of bargaining. For your next collective agreement, your next bargaining committee can push your employer to expand the night shift premium to start even earlier and introduce a weekend premium. We did not think we could achieve either of these things without going on strike this round.
 
Next Steps:
 
What we heard at the membership meeting, and what your bargaining committee has heard from talking to people one-on-one is that you’d like a chance to vote on accepting your renewed collective agreement again.
 
Over the next week, your bargaining committee members Tereasa Greco and Erlinda Frijas will be working to collect your personal email addresses to ensure that more members receive the Union’s emails, and you receive your voting credentials. You can also update your email address by logging into the Member’s Portal at members.bcgeu.ca.
 
Please take another look at the full terms of the renewed collective agreement here. When you vote, you will be voting to accept all the changes in the entire document. New language that would be added to the collective agreement is in bold, underline and highlight, like this. Language that would be deleted from the collective agreement is struck through with a line.
 
Voting will open at 9am on May 31. You will receive an email with a link to vote online and your unique voting credentials. Voting will close on Thursday, June 3 at 5pm. We strongly encourage you to vote, as this will be your only method to cast a ballot.
 
If the tentative agreement fails to ratify during this vote, our next step will be to take a strike vote.
 
If you do not receive a voting credential, or if you experience problems casting your vote, please contact [email protected], or Sheila Matthen (Staff Representative) by calling 604-291-9611 or 1-800-663-1674 ASAP after voting opens, but no later than Thursday, June 3 at 12pm. This will allow enough time to issue a voting credential before voting closes. Please note that phone support is available during regular BCGEU office hours from 8:30am to 5pm, Monday to Friday.
 
Voting results will be announced on Friday, June 4.
 
We strongly encourage you to vote yes and ratify your new collective agreement.
 
In solidarity,
 
Tereasa Greco, Bargaining Committee Chair
Erlinda Frijas, Bargaining Committee Member
Darlene Thomas, Bargaining Committee Member
Sheila Matthen, Staff Representative – Negotiations


Download PDF of notice here

UWU/MoveUP