CUPE News Nov 2024
Nov 14 Day One (half day) of Bargaining
Proposals were exchanged. We submitted a full package of proposals with monetary propositions. Queen’s proposal was absent of monetary offers and will be exchanged at a later date.
- Queen’s denies a common table for all common issues presented by the CUPE locals
- Queen’s perceives common table not productive and can lead to differences among locals
- Queen’s asked for the committee to be transparent at the table but confidential with the members outside of the bargaining table
- Transparency leads to conflicts in membership
Conciliation
Your bargaining committee has filed for conciliation. That means it has requested that the Ontario Ministry of Labour appoint a conciliation officer who will try to help the union, and the employer resolve their differences so they can reach a new collective agreement. Your leaders made this decision now, at this early stage of bargaining, because your agreement expired in April (June) and your leaders want your issues addressed as quickly as possible.
Estoppel notice
We outlined that our Position Evaluation Timelines as per Article 26.02 are not being met and an Estoppel notice (Deemed breach of Contract) has been given to Queen’s.
No concessions policy
Be aware that CUPE has a policy of not agreeing to concessions in bargaining. The full resources of the national union will be mobilized to prevent concessions from being agreed to by a Local Union.
Priority issues
Wages
Real economic hardship due to years of declining purchasing power – most members have more than 10% lower real income than ten years ago: check our CUPE’s inflation calculator.
Animal Care Helpers made $44,695 in June 2014: today’s $51,455 annual wage is 10.13% lower in real dollars once you factor in inflation.
Computer Engineering Technologists made $65,096 in June 2014: today’s $73,516 annual wage is 12.27% lower in real dollars.
It’s no wonder, then, that this Local’s Member Survey revealed real economic hardship among members.
Out of 83 members who completed our survey:
74.7% have had to stop putting money aside from savings or have had to drain savings to make ends meet.
49.4% have struggled to pay monthly bills(rent/mortgage, heat, hydro)
36.1% report suffering from poor health, including mental health
31.3% have had to cut back on food or visit a food bank
28.9% had to take on extra job (or jobs)
25.3% have been late paying bills
Queen’s is not living up to its own stated SDG goals of helping reduce poverty.
Bill 124
Legislation which limited CA increases to 1%/year in last contract has since been declared unconstitutional, but Queen’s refused to re-adjust wages; despite being applied to the highest years of inflation we’ve seen in decades.
We want compensation now.
CUPE is part of a lawsuit with other unions demanding compensation: still in the courts you will see a proposal in our package demanding compensation for those three years of illegally constrained increases.
Job Evaluation
This bargaining unit is very unique and has a unique job evaluation system that has run into difficulties in the last term of their collective agreement.
The union has been in discussions with management about potentially using a different job evaluation tool to streamline and simplify the process.
We want to continue those discussions, but we also want to address some of the reasons we believe the current system has broken down. You will see several proposals aimed at giving the union more of a say in the process, strengthening timelines, and putting in place a dispute resolution system for when we disagree.
Summary Queen’s Proposal
- Discontinue Queen’s payment of medical premium between 55-59 for employees who take early retirement.
- Essential Animal Care LOU to be imbedded into the agreement.
- Change the definition of normal working hours to include the possibility of a 40-hour work week.
- Remove shift premiums for work scheduled on Saturday and Sunday.
- Reduce overtime premium for Sunday from double time to time and one half.
- Looking to change recognition of seniority.
- Looking to add language defining termination.
- Proposing language to award a market adjustment for hard to fill positions at their discretion.
- Wants to move up the deadline for the application period for Child Care Plan and Tuition support.
Click here to view our proposal
Click here to view the Queen’s proposal
We are going to hold a strike vote on Dec 10 at 12pm at our virtual general meeting. Please be sure to attend
We have been waiting months for Queen’s to come to the table, and we know we are going to have serious differences in our bargaining positions. The employer is a long way from recognizing the dramatic increase in cost of living. Showing that you and your coworkers are ready to strike gives you negotiating power. Fair contracts are not won at the bargaining table – they are won in the workplace when workers show unity and collective power by voting YES to strike if necessary.
Unity Council
Unity Council continues to meet to discuss bargaining and will be posting updates on the Unity Council website.
CUPE News Oct 2024
Oct 24 Presented Petition
The presidents and representatives from CUPE 229-0, CUPE 254, CUPE 1302, and USW 2010 and 2010-01 delivered their Majority Petitions to Nick Mosey, Chief of Staff to the Principal’s Office. Union leadership from CUPE 229-1 presented their petition to Aramark at a labour-management meeting on October 21st, and CUPE 229-3 delivered their petition to Donald Gordon Centre management on October 28th. PSAC-901 is currently working on plans to present the results of their petitions to senior leadership.
Oct 31 Austerity is Scary – Halloween Rally – Petition Banner!
The results of the Majority Petitions were announced on Halloween at Unity Council’s “Austerity is Scary” rally. Workers gathered during a gorgeous, sunny lunch hour to celebrate the achievement with candy, costumes, and swag! It was wonderful to celebrate the results of our collective efforts and to see so many workers get into the spirit! A special shout-out to the USW communications team for their hard work putting this rally together!
CUPE News Sept 2024
– March 21, 2024 – CUPE 254 Bargaining Preparation Survey sent out to all members – we
discussed the outcomes in our General Meeting in May
– April 4, 2024 – Unity Rally at the Queen’s Centre
– June 30, 2024 – Collective Agreement ended
– May 31, 2024 – Notice of our Intention to Bargain, was sent into Queen’s– we still have not had a
response to our request for disclosure or bargain. CUPE Rep Marc will be sending out a reminder
to Queen’s.
– July 4, 2024 – Principal’s BBQ we were able to get a few more signature for the petition and
hand out our “We are Queen’s Worker United“ wrist bands to show unity.
Aug 14, 2024 – Bargaining Summit Meeting (USW, PSAC, CUPE 229, 1302, 254 and QUFA) Members of all seven different bargaining committees learned about each other’s jobs and strategized for building the power we need to win our demands together.
Executive members have been meeting with Unity Council Committee – bimonthly “Plan To Win”
Both proposals, Queen’s and CUPE 254, will be posted on our CUPE 254 website once we start negotiating. This is the first time ever that the members will have a chance to view both party’s proposals.
Over the summer, members of our Contract Action Team(s), CAT, reached out to all members asking everyone to sign on to a petition demanding fair wage increases and adequate staffing levels, and committing to supporting the demands of other workers at Queen’s. Our target is 60% and we have surpassed that as of Sept 1, 2024 at 61%. We will be reaching out to the rest of the membership to reach 100% by mid October! – Lanyard’s are being handed out. We are trying to give out to members as we get their signature for the petition. If we missed you, please reach out for one!