Masterpiece Southland Meadows: Bargaining is advancing

Bargaining for your first collective agreement is well on its way to being completed at Masterpiece Southland Meadows. Your negotiations team has met with the employer five times over the past month, and we’ve signed off on a number of important elements of our collective agreement.

We are through the list of non-monetary items in the proposal. So far, we have signed off on the following issues:

• Article 3 – Union Recognition
• Article 4 – Union Membership and Dues Deduction
• Article 5 – Management Rights
• Article 6 – Time off for Union Business
• Article 7 – Respectful Workplace
• Article 9 – Probationary Period
• Article 10 – Seniority
• Article 15 – Performance Appraisals
• Article 23 – Workers Compensation
• Article 27 – Discipline and Dismissal
• Article 28 – Grievance Procedure
• Article 29 – Occupational Health and Safety
• Article 30 – Copies of the CA
• Article 32 – Employee Management Advisory Committee
• Article 33 – Contracting Out
• Article 36 – Anti-nepotism/Cronyism
• LOU – Protection of Privacy and Access to Personal Information
• LOU – Workload Appeal Process

Your negotiations team has worked hard in these negotiations to fulfil your priorities, which you outlined in the bargaining survey you completed in April and May. We are happy to say that negotiations, so far, have gone smoothly, which is not always the case for first collective agreements.

We still need to finalize the monetary items, which we expect to be somewhat more adversarial. The employer has tabled a partial monetary proposal with some modest gains, but your negotiations team will not be signing off on anything until we have seen a full monetary proposal. We expect this to arrive at our next bargaining session.
Your negotiations team will keep you and your co-workers in the loop about the monetary items as soon as we have more information.

If and when your negotiations team reaches an agreement with the employer, then the tentative agreement will go to a vote among all AUPE members at Masterpiece Southland Meadows. You will decide, through the democratic vote, whether to accept the proposal or not.

Through this process, your support for the negotiations team has been essential. Our employer knows that the staff is united behind the bargaining team, and that has made our negotiations much easier. It is through our unity and solidarity that we have been able to make it this far.

Now, it’s time to push it over the finish line. Keep an eye out for further bargaining updates in the near future.

In the meantime, don’t hesitate to reach out to the negotiations team with any questions, comments, or feedback.

MASTERPIECE SOUTHLAND MEADOWS NEGOTIATIONS TEAM:

Gailyn Macdonald gailyn.macdonald@mymhc.ca

Kelcee Kleiner kelcee.kleiner@gmail.com

AUPE RESOURCE STAFF:

Membership Services Officer - Angela Regnier – a.regnier@aupe.org

Organizer – Jaime Urbina – j.urbina@aupe.org

Negotiator - Christian Tetreault - c.tetreault@aupe.org c.tetreault@aupe.org

Communications Officer—Jon Milton— j.milton@aupe.org