This week, your Units 1, 2, & 3 Bargaining Team (BT) had a bit of a lighter workweek, with no meetings scheduled between the Employer and the bargaining team. That doesn’t mean work didn’t get done, as proposals need to be reviewed, counters prepared, and our proposal packages were updated (thank you, Madeliene, Steph, and Ankit!). We were also at our GMM at the beginning of the week. During the GMM, much of our usual union business needs to be prioritized, but the BT usually has a spot reserved for bargaining updates as well.
At the GMM, Corey did a thorough job explaining where we’re at in bargaining. We are getting ready for a first meeting with the Conciliator, to see whether it is possible to press the Employer to present their counters to our monetary proposals — for example, benefits and wages — which have been lingering about on the table since July. On Wednesday we held our weekly bargaining team meeting, where we discussed our counter on the current grievance procedure, debated the current AI counter from the Employer, and briefly went over the counter from the Employer regarding all our letters in our collective agreements.
Finally, the Bargaining Team would like to elicit some opinions from members on what they believe are important and pressing matters in our current round of bargaining. We have identified health issues like air quality and, of course, wages and benefits as important to our quality of life and work. Any additional input from members is very welcome. On October 29, our meetings with the Employer — and the Conciliator — are starting up again, and it would be lovely to see more members join us for that. See you at the table!
In solidarity,
CUPE 3903 Bargaining Team (Units 1, 2, & 3)
bargaining@cupe3903.org
Click here to read previous BT reports, and check the calendar for upcoming bargaining-related happenings.