In a letter dated March 2, 2010 the employer proposed four names, William Kaplan, Russell Goodfellow, Peter Barton and Kevin Whitaker, as possible interest arbitrators. These four individuals have varying amounts of experience working as arbitrators, primarily in the province of Ontario. Although the Union believes that some of these proposed arbitrators may have the qualifications required to serve as the interest arbitrator it does have some concerns, which it has raised with the employer, about the number of available dates these individuals may have and the fact that none of them are bi-lingual. Once the Union receives a response from the employer about these concerns it will be in a better position to determine if it will agree to any of the employer’s proposals.  If the Union does not agree with any of the proposed names it will write to the Minister of Labour to request that she appoint the arbitrator.

MEMBERSHIP SUPPORT STRONG

At least one member of the Negotiating Committee was present and participated in each of the Presidents’ Meetings recently held in each Region. During those meetings the Committee members were able to explain both why the demands being put forward by the Union are important to the membership and why a significant portion of the proposals being made by the employer were rejected by the Committee. The Committee members also used those meetings to stress the connection between the issues facing the RSMC membership and those faced by members of the Urban Operation bargaining unit. As the RSMC and Urban Operations collective agreements draw closer to their expiry dates it is important that the membership of both units understand the similarities between the two groups of members and support each other in their struggles.

In reporting back from the meetings, the Committee members did indicate that although a large number of the Presidents in attendance were from the Urban Operations unit, the issues arising from the RSMC negotiations were understood by the participants and the necessary solidarity between the two units was evident.

INTEREST ARBITRATION

At this point it is not possible to determine when the interest arbitration process will start or how long it will continue. It is known that there will be a delay in the merits of the Union demands being determined as the employer intends to delay the process by introducing preliminary objections to the jurisdiction of the appointed arbitrator. One of the employer’s purported objections is that the

interest arbitrator cannot start his or her work until a number of grievances submitted by the National Union are resolved through the article 9 arbitration process.  This is the same preliminary argument that the employer made during the last re-opener and it is instructive to know that one of the grievances that it relied upon to make that argument, N00-06-R0006, is still unresolved as of this date even though it was submitted by the Union on April 8, 2008. It is unfortunate that the employer has chosen to repeat such delaying tactics; however it is part and parcel of its attempts to punish RSMC members for becoming unionized employees.

Contrary to the delaying tactics of the employer the Negotiating Committee will try and move the arbitration process ahead in a timely manner so that members can more quickly obtain the rights and benefits to which they are entitled.

In the meantime, members should stay involved in the process by reading Union bulletins, visiting the Union’s website (www.cupw-sttp.org), participating in activities coordinated by the Union and by completing questionnaires and returning them as soon as possible to the Negotiating Committee that will allow it to successfully pursue the demands of the membership.