Employer Finally Responds to Arbitration Notification

As reported in bulletin #13 the Union advised the employer on January 20, 2010 that it was referring unresolved issues from the Union’s package of demands to interest arbitration.  According to the provisions of clause 36.04 (b) the employer had to respond to the Union “within fifteen (15) calendar days” if it had other unresolved issues it wanted to submit to arbitration.  The employer finally responded on February 2, 2010, which was the second last day available to it for a response.  In its response the employer added the following issues to arbitration: wage increase, short term disability program, corporate team incentive, drug plan, Appendix “A” and the removal of the Transition Committee, dental plan, vision & hearing plan and on-call relief employees. Not included in the employer’s list of additional issues were its proposals to hold back a certain amount of financial cap monies (“escrow account”), the requirement of a mandatory complaint stage and the inclusion of language in the collective agreement requiring “respect and civility” in the workplace.

 

Employer Refuses to Continue Negotiating with Union

In its January 20, 2010 letter to the employer the Union also indicated that it was prepared to continue negotiating with the employer prior to and during the interest arbitration process.  The employer has recently informed the Union that it is not prepared to continue such negotiations.  While this employer response is unwelcome it is also not surprising.  Throughout the negotiations, and despite its assertions to the contrary, the employer’s intent was to use third party interest arbitration to force issues unacceptable to the membership and the Union into the RSMC collective agreement.

 

Negotiating Committee Rejects Employer’s Short Term Disability Plan

In December the employer sent a letter to each RSMC member, with the main purpose of the letter being to extol the benefits of the negotiation proposals the employer had made concerning a short term disability plan (STD) and a corporate team incentive (CTI) payment.

The Negotiating Committee has recently sent a letter to each Local Union representing RSMC members, as well as a copy of the specific STD proposal made to the Committee by the employer in January, 2010.  The purpose in providing these documents is to provide information to RSMC members as to why the Negotiating Committee has rejected, and will continue to reject, the STD proposal made by the employer.

A summary of the reasons for such rejection include:

• the insufficiency of the monetary benefits found in the plan;
• a lengthy qualifying period prior to accessing benefits in cases of illness;
• decisions concerning benefits made by the carrier without sufficient input from the member or his or her doctor;
• inadequate appeal process when initial claim is rejected by the carrier; and
• no access, with Union representation, to grievance/arbitration procedure if a member’s claim is unfairly rejected.

The employer document also attempted to establish a link between increases in the number of paid personal days to which each member would be entitled on a yearly basis and the short term disability plan.  The Negotiating Committee believes that there is no reasonable connection between these two issues and that any such increases in paid leave should not be tied to the Union’s acceptance of the mediocre and unacceptable STD proposal being made by the employer.  Members should contact a Local Executive Committee member for more detailed information about why the Negotiating Committee rejects the employer’s STD proposal.

 

Employer’s January 29, 2010 Letter to the Membership

In bulletin #13 the Negotiating Committee reported on the inflammatory and unreasonable response of the employer’s bargaining committee to a Union proposal that some of the $15,000,000 the employer acknowledged was available in 2010 be immediately allocated to issues on which there was some common ground between the parties, such as wages and various health care benefits.  This allocation would have provided some immediate benefits for the membership and not prejudiced either the Union or the employer as they continued negotiations or presented their arguments to a third party. The employer response was inflammatory and unreasonable because it tied a possible acceptance of the Union’s proposal to the Union’s acceptance of employer proposals that were not costed and which were totally unacceptable.

By now most of you will have received a copy of the January 29, 2010 letter written by a senior vice-president of the employer.  As well as repeating the unreasonable and inflammatory offer of the employer’s negotiating committee the letter also establishes that the employer representatives, at both the bargaining committee and senior management levels, have little idea of what changes are required to the RSMC collective agreement to improve the working lives of the RSMC membership.

The underlying rationale for the letter is that its author actually thinks that the proposals made by the employer would be acceptable to the RSMC membership.  This rationale is so far removed from the membership’s reality that it would be laughable if it was not so condescending and arrogant.  Not only does the employer expect the membership to accept proposals that clearly are not in their best interests but its expectation that the Union’s Negotiating Committee would accept such proposals in exchange for the employer only being required to “consider” the Union proposals is totally unacceptable.

 

Membership Must Stay Involved

 As indicated above it is clear to the Negotiating Committee that the employer has not yet decided to seriously bargain with the Union.  In order to assist the Negotiating Committee members in their efforts to achieve a collective agreement that meets the real needs of the membership, members should continue to participate in activities organized by their Local Executive Committees and stay aware of negotiations events by reading Union bulletins and accessing the Union’s website (www.cupw.ca/rsmc).

 

SHOP STEWARDS NEED TO BRING THIS INFORMATION TO THE ATTENTION OF THE MEMBERS DURING REGULAR WEEKLY SHOP FLOOR MEETINGS.