Here is the ratification document you will be voting on starting later this week. Printed copies will be available from bargaining committee members at the worksite beginning sometime on Thursday. It contains major gains for Sunwood employees, and your bargaining committee encourages you to vote "yes" to accept the agreement.

The ratification document is around 30 pages long and we will only speak to the highlights in Friday's meeting. It is very important that you read the entire ratification document in advance so you can understand everything you are voting on, and so you can ask any questions you have at the meeting.

Highlights of the agreement include:

• Term of approximately 13 months, from date of ratification to April 30, 2023
• Wage increases of between 9.4% and 11.4% ($1.79/hour to $2.16/hour) over the term of the agreement:
  
  
  
  
• Classifications with wage grid steps reach the top step sooner—now after 5,850 hours worked (down from 9,750 hours)

• Adds Easter Monday and Boxing Day as paid holidays
• Annual vacation improvements effective January 1, 2023:
  • Four weeks after 10 years (used to be after 15 years)
  • Five weeks after 15 years (new)
• Adds a voluntary 1% matched group RRSP
• As of June 1, 2022, part-time regular employees are eligible for health and welfare benefits if they work at least 18 hours per week (down from working at least 30 hours per week)
• Seven days’ paid sick leave for full-time regular employees (up from five)
• Bereavement leave for spouse and dependent child increased to five paid days (up from three)
• No concessions—current/previous benefits and other terms and conditions of employment are maintained
• A ‘complete’ collective agreement, including language regarding bullying and harassment and access to the grievance and arbitration processes to protect employees’ rights

The following terms are also included in the memorandum of settlement:

• No contracting out of work that would result in layoff of bargaining unit employees during the life of the agreement
• Staged transition over three years from taking vacation in the year it is earned, to earning it in one year and taking it in the next

Again, we encourage you to vote “yes” to accept the agreement.

In solidarity,

Sandy Paine, Bargaining Committee Member
Linda Richardson, Bargaining Committee Member
Ryan Stewart, Staff Representative, Negotiations

Download PDF of notice here 


UWU/MoveUP