Report of the CIU Collective Bargaining Committee
National Board of Directors Meeting
September 2010
| Chair: | Steve Pellerin-Fowlie |
| Committee Members: | Doug Tremblett |
| Fred Milligan | |
| Brea Lewis |
The Committee met in the National Office on August 5 to 7, 2010, and on September 22, 2010.
As you are all aware, the previous Collective Bargaining Team is currently sitting at the table in an expedited bargaining process with the employer. As such, two of the current Committee members, one Board member, and the Committee Chair are on that Team. The Team is currently in a “blackout” situation and cannot discuss any communications between PSAC and the Team or between the employer and the Team. Even though the previous Team is currently at the table with the employer, the PSAC and CIU are still continuing down the originally scheduled path of collective bargaining as our current agreements expire on June 20, 2011.
PSAC issued the input call for bargaining demands, together with its Program of Demands (suggested demands) for the next round of bargaining in June 2010. PSAC set a deadline of October 1, 2010, to have the demands submitted to the PSAC Centre. In preparation for this, the Committee set a deadline of July 31, 2010, for receipt of CIU demands.
The Committee reviewed all demands received in Ottawa on August 5, 6, and 7, 2010. The number of demands submitted was extensive and outstanding. There were 112 FB demands and 76 PA demands. Demands were not submitted for the SV, TC, or EB bargaining units. After a careful review, the Committee categorized FB demands into 29 categories and PA demands into 22 categories. FB demands will be prioritized by CIU at the PSAC bargaining conference and the top 20 will be taken. PA demands will be prioritized by the Committee and the top 20 will be submitted to the PSAC on October 1, 2010.
The Committee was informed that there was some confusion about the deadline for submitting demands to CIU. Therefore, the Committee agreed to accept late demands up to and including September 21, 2010. 54 additional demands were submitted, which the Committee will review, categorize, and have translated for submission to the PSAC along with the rest of the CIU demands by October 1, 2010.
The PSAC Alliance Executive Committee determined and released the delegate formula for the Regional Collective Bargaining Conferences in June 2010. A CIU deadline of August 4, 2010 was set for CIU Branches to submit names of members they wished to nominate as potential delegates to the Regional Bargaining Conferences. The CIU Collective Bargaining Committee reviewed the names proposed by the Branches and provided its recommendations to the National Executive for Component and equity group delegates. The National Executive submitted an approved list of CIU Component delegates to PSAC on August 13, 2010. The PSAC Alliance Executive Committee will select delegates representing the equity groups at the Regional Collective Bargaining Conferences. As of today, the Regional Bargaining Conferences are still going ahead as scheduled. The Eastern Regional Bargaining Conference (Atlantic and Quebec) will be held in Halifax November 13 – 14, 2010. The Ontario NCR Regional Bargaining Conference will be November 27- 28, 2010 in Toronto. The Western Regional Bargaining Conference will be in Winnipeg on December 4-5, 2010.
Regarding Essential Service Agreements, a very favourable ruling came out from the Public Service Labour Relations Board in August 2010 that affects the PA Group at Service Canada. The ruling fully supported the position of the PSAC relating to procedural fairness, good faith bargaining, and the jurisdiction of the Public Service Labour Relations Board. However, the employer has since filed a request for judicial review to the Federal Court of Appeal. If this decision stands, two key elements will have been achieved:
- The employer will have to disclose the information used to determine the “level of service”, which is the exclusive right of the employer; so the union will be able to assure itself that the employer is not abusing its rights to set the level of service and prevent more members from striking than is necessary.
- The Public Service Labour Relations Board will have the jurisdiction to “supervise” the decision-making process to ensure procedural fairness.
In closing, with all of the current uncertainties that we, as members of the Board and as members of CIU, may have regarding the current expedited Collective Bargaining process, we must stand in solidarity with our Bargaining Team and we must proceed as previously scheduled and wait for further direction from the current Collective Bargaining Team.
Respectfully submitted,
Brea Lewis