Your Steward Committee and Staff Representative met with members of the Employer’s Senior Leadership Team (SLT) on Monday, April 7th, to begin formal Labour Adjustment Planning discussions under Section 54 of the BC Labour Relations Code on the employer’s intention to end paid meal periods for all unionized workers.
 
We presented our first counter proposal that we discussed with workers at our most recent Town Hall Meeting; it included:

• Maintaining paid breaks for all Mental Health Workers (MHWs) and any other classification that works frontline alone across Housing and Shelters (no schedule changes or layoffs required).
• Accepting employer proposal to extend Frontline Supervisors (FLS), Schedulers, Indigenous Community Liaisons, and Client Service Workers (CSW) by their breaks to make up for their hours lost.
• Extending shifts by their breaks for employees in Food Services, Maintenance and Janitorial to make up for their hours lost.

We spoke to the nature of the work we do and why we need to maintain paid breaks for frontline workers, the most important of these being how deeply unsafe it is to leave our buildings unstaffed or under-staffed on a regular basis.
 
We noted that this will inevitably lead to more burned-out workers, WCB Leaves, refusals of unsafe work, called-out shifts, physical and psychological injuries, and harm to our clients.
 
We also highlighted that this is a time of extreme economic instability – we know our employer is experiencing financial pressures, but so are workers, and that needs to be recognized.
 
Another issue with the Employer’s proposed schedules that we addressed was the intent to reduce the hours and pay of our Janitorial, Food Services and Maintenance workers. We highlighted how overworked these workers are, and proposed shift extensions to allow them to perform important tasks that are currently being missed or contracted out. We believe this will save money, make our workplaces cleaner and safer, and most importantly, protect these hard-working employees from the employer’s proposed wage cuts.
 
We then brought forth questions that demand answers from the employer, such as what constitutes an “emergency,” and when and how workers with unpaid meal periods will get paid in the event that they are required to work through a break period. We also inquired as to how approved vacations for the year will be handled if workers’ hours and/or schedules change–the employer representatives committed to protect these and continue to work on that with us.
 
Your Steward Committee believes strongly that psychological safety is safety, that no worker deserves a wage cut in a time of economic crisis, and that people are at the heart of everything we do at Cool Aid (including all of you). Thank you for empowering us to speak on behalf of the workers at these meetings. Please keep sharing your ideas, stories and concerns–they matter!
 
As the situation evolves, we will continue to do our best to advocate for the best standards for all workers, so that all of us can continue to do the challenging and meaningful work we do together every day.
 
In solidarity,
 
Your Steward Committee:
 
Kate Banky, Local 301 Chair and Steward
Marina Bazalitskaya, Local 301 Treasurer
Matthew Busby-O’Connor, Steward
Jaime Eaglestick, Steward
Lucas Hayes, Steward
Peter Janz, Lead Steward
Jordan Kovacs, Steward
Rebecca McEwan, Steward
Mala Moulik, Local 301 Member-at-Large and Steward
Kenon Sugie, Steward
Monique Yuan, Local 301 Equity Member
Kathleen Mann, Staff Representative

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UWU/MoveUP