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Bargaining Committee Will Contact You

In the coming weeks, bargaining committee members and other member volunteers will reach out to all employees to seek your input on contract matters in dispute. Please read the bargaining update below and ask any questions you might have of your worksite bargaining committee members.

Bargaining Update

Negotiations for your first collective agreement with Nikkei Seniors Health Care and Housing Society continued September 3^rd, 5^th, 12^th, and 19^th. Your union and employer have so far spent 18 days in bargaining. Progress has continued, with the parties having now signed off on a total of 16 proposals.

The Employer has continued to say it does not have enough money to pay for the Union's monetary proposals. Except for minor improvements in a small number of these and other areas, the Employer has rejected and said "no" to all the main union monetary proposals, including:

• increasing the amount of annual vacation time,
• paying for renewal of courses, certificates, and licenses that are a condition of employment,
• providing a voluntary matching registered retirement savings plan,
• improving health and welfare benefits, and
• increasing shift premiums, e.g., for night and weekend shifts.

The Union has received disclosure of employer financial information and will now assess the Employer's inability-to-pay argument. Once we have assessed the Employer's finances, we will be in a better position to determine how hard and how far to push for monetary gains.

The Employer continues to reject and say "no" to many union non-monetary proposals, including those:

• protecting employees' jobs against contracting out and from being performed by volunteers,
• establishing layoff and recall provisions for when jobs are eliminated,
• providing for education leave, general leave, and union leave,
• giving employees credit for seniority in the first stage of job selection processes (the Employer will only agree to it being a tiebreaker),
• allowing laid-off regular employees to accept casual work without losing their right of recall, and
• allowing for union meetings at the worksite.

Your bargaining committee and union staff continue to meet to discuss ways to pressure the Employer towards agreement on a good contract. Negotiations will resume in late October or early November.

Thank you for your ongoing patience and support throughout this lengthy process. We will provide another update in November.

In solidarity,

Pinky Rose Mateo, Bargaining Committee Chair
Yumiko Turco, Bargaining Committee Member
Satomi Yoneda, Bargaining Committee Member
Ryan Stewart, Staff Representative, Negotiations Department

Download PDF of bulletin here

UWU/MoveUP