Friends,

On July 2, 2024, the Union applied to the Labour Relations Board seeking to consolidate the Interior Savings Thompson, Interior Savings Okanagan and, Grand Forks Credit Union bargaining units into one.

As discussed during our July 4 and 8 virtual meetings, it is the Union's position that consolidating the existing three bargaining units is appropriate for several reasons including: employees all perform either administrative or financial services for credit union members; the terms and conditions under the three collective agreements are similar; employees have similar hours of work and receive similar pay; all three bargaining units have the same or similar classifications; the job duties of the positions are materially the same across the bargaining units. Furthermore, the Employer is currently operating under one integrated administrative structure, one Board of Directors and one labour relations team and, is planning on continuing to integrate the formerly separate entities under Beem. There is also a practice and history of collective bargaining in the sector with many credit unions operating with one bargaining unit per employer such as Vancity where the BCGEU unionized branches and departments are all in the same bargaining unit.

Should the board determine that a consolidation is not appropriate the Union has asked that it declare Beem to be a successor or common employer with Interior Savings and Grand Forks Credit Unions. Interior Savings and G&F were sold, leased, transferred or otherwise disposed of to Beem and continue to exist as trade names under the sole proprietorship of Beem. Beem is the only entity carrying on the business of the two credit unions.

The effect of a successorship or common employer finding is the same as we are seeking consolidation of all three bargaining units in both cases.

On July 24, 2024, the board asked the Employer to respond to the Union's application. The Employer's response is due August 12, 2024. If any of you would like to receive a copy of the Union's application, please contact your servicing rep.

We will provide a further update once we have received and had an opportunity, to review the Employer's response. If you have any questions in the interim, please feel free to reach out to any one of us.

If a member at your worksite didn't receive this email, please encourage them to go to the BCGEU member portal at my.bcgeu.ca to sign up for an account and update their contact information. If you are a steward, please post this bulletin on the Union bulletin board at your worksite.

In solidarity,

Dayl Dhaliwal, Member
Dani Harkies, Member
Tracy Noseworthy, Chairperson, Financial Institutes Bargaining Council
Mike Fenton, Servicing Rep
Darla Holmwood, Servicing Rep
JoAnne Leclerc, Servicing Rep
Zoe Towle, Staff Rep, Negotiations

Download PDF of bulletin here

UWU/MoveUP