No discussion on money yet
Your Government Services Bargaining Committee (GSBC) met with the employer (Government of Alberta – GOA) on Feb. 2 and 3. There was no discussion of monetary items, but the two sides agreed to sign off on a number of items.
We agreed on language to extend the trial period in the Workload Review Process in Article 54.
Where the manager or director have come up with a plan to address workload issues, and when the affected employees agree, there will now be 30 days to assess the plan before moving to the next stage.
If the employees are not satisfied at the end of that assessment period, then union can submit the concern in writing to the Office of the appropriate Deputy Minister, who will assign it to a Workload Review Committee.
We also agreed to sign off housekeeping changes to Article 29, which deals with the grievance procedure. These changes bring the grievance procedure into line with current operational practices.
We agreed to sign off on the following articles, which are already in the current agreement:
- Article 33A - Long Term Disability (LTD);
- Article 35 - Insurance; and
- Article 44 – Parking;
Housekeeping changes were agreed to on other items, including:
- Letter of Intent #2 – Workload Appeal Process;
- Letter of Understanding #6 – 6 and 3 Work Schedules;
- Subsidiary 02, Letter of Understanding #4 – Employees Working in S.C.A.N.; and
- Subsidiary #3, Letter of Understanding #1 – 6/3 Shift Rotation.
Letter of Understanding #16 – Long Term Disability Income Continuance Plan Review was deleted.
We signed new letters of understanding relating to the eight-week shift rotations at the Highway Operations Unit in Edmonton and at Alberta Environmental and Dangerous Goods Emergencies (EDGE).
We also tabled a Letter of Understanding for all officers participating in the GOA’s Rural Alberta Provincial Integrated Defence (RAPID) Response initiative.
No new dates have been scheduled yet, but we expect to meet again in early March.
You may have noticed that the GOA has posted notices at worksites about the bad-faith bargaining complaint we filed with the Alberta Labour Relations Board (ALRB). The employer is required to do this by legislation.
The complaint accuses the GOA of interference with the administration of a union.
AUPE is alleging that many actions taken by the employer “are a vindictive reaction by a petulant Government …”
These included the GOA announcing that it would:
- Contract out services at the Royal Alberta Museum;
- Contract out services delivered by workers in Community and Social Services; and
- Seek a rollback of four per cent in the first year of the next collective-bargaining agreement, even though it had previously asked for a one-per-cent cut.
This complaint is now working its way through the labour-board system. We filed this complaint on Jan. 20, but did not broadcast news of it widely, because we wanted to keep a productive atmosphere for the meetings this week.
If you wish to submit anything to the labour board relating to this complaint, please contact your Local's representative on the GSBC.
Your Government Services Bargaining Committee (GSBC)
Rebecca Leblanc, (GSBC Vice-chair), Local 001, leblare@gmail.com
Andrea Waywanko, Local 002, waywaa@hotmail.com
Dax Lydiard, Local 003, 003bargaining@gmail.com
Steve Eagles, Local 004, s-eagles@shaw.ca
Randy Ramsden, Local 005, r.a.ramsden@hotmail.com
Donna Smith, Local 006, xsmith@telus.net
Angela Pala, Local 009, rossieyork@shaw.ca
Bryan Poll, Local 012, bpoll325@gmail.com
AUPE staff resources
Dale Perry, negotiations spokesperson, d.perry@aupe.org
Merryn Edwards, negotiations spokesperson, m.edwards@aupe.org
Trevor Zimmerman, organizer, t.zimmerman@aupe.org
Madelaine Sommers, organizer, m.sommers@aupe.org
Terry Inigo-Jones, communications, t.inigo-jones@aupe.org