Friends,

We have now completed our second week of bargaining. To recap, we met:

o January 16-19, and

o January 23-26.

We are scheduled to resume March 19, continuing March 20 and 21.

We are making progress and have agreed to some of the more minor proposals such as renewal of letters of agreement and, modernizing the pregnancy and parental leave provisions. But the key priorities identified through member meetings and bargaining surveys remain outstanding. We anticipate moving into those discussions when we resume.

Our conversations with the Employer were sometimes difficult but we believe, necessary. Understanding each others' positions could be critically important when we resume March 19 as it will be during that session that we will begin focussing on the key priorities such as casual employees including call-in, temporary employees, layoff and recall, wages and the related money proposals.

As we promised, this round of bargaining will be different. We are taking time to be thorough, clear, and responsive to what you identified as key priorities through your responses to the bargaining surveys and during member meetings. We offer our continued commitment to transparency and open communication.

We will continue to send updates as necessary. In the interim, should you have any questions please contact one of us or one of your department representatives who are:

CRF - Josiah Kemper
CRF - Ben MacIntosh
Kitchen - Ken Li
Shelters - Adam Thomas
Shelters - Emma Boggan
Treatment - Winko Tavcar

If you know a BCGEU member who didn't get this bulletin, please send them a copy. They should log on to the MY BCGEU member portal-my.bcgeu.ca-to give or update their email address. Go to https://my.bcgeu.ca/signup to create an account.

In solidarity,

Christina Petrina, Bargaining Committee Chairperson
Take Mori, Bargaining Committee
Simon Rosengarten, Bargaining Committee
Megan Cawood, Servicing Rep
Zoe Towle, Spokesperson, Negotiations

UWU/MoveUP