Component agreements can cover issues that have some monetary implications, however – in a change from previous rounds of bargaining – at no component table would the PSA agree to discuss any items that were remotely monetary, insisting on referring them to the main table.
The negotiations were respectful but not highly productive: we went to the table very prepared but were disappointed the employer was not willing to engage on most proposals, including those that were not explicitly monetary.
We will make sure that important component issues are followed through upon at the main agreement table in the coming weeks.
Below is a summary of significant negotiated changes at your component bargaining table.
Component 20
The Component 20 bargaining team was well prepared for bargaining and brought 27 proposals to the table on issues/items such as:
o boot and clothing allowances,
o locker and changing facilities,
o professional development,
o hours of work and averaging schedules,
o special certificate allowances,
o standby language,
o paid rest time earned during field deployments,
o measures that improve equity for auxiliaries with respect to particular provisions/allowances, and that improve the universality of the agreement generally by eliminating exceptions in places for certain employees (e.g., BCWS)
We also introduced a larger and more integrated package for wildfire employees (e.g., targeting base compensation for operational positions, pensionable service on OT, and auxiliary conversion) that we intend to pursue via main table negotiations.
The employer ruled out most of our proposals on the grounds of their potential monetary implications, even where these were indirect.
After much back and forth, we did finally receive a counter on our proposal(s) regarding hours of work and averaging schedules, but the employer was unwilling to agree to any of the important and truly substantive adjustments our members are seeking on this language.
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