Fighting for your rights: Grievance-Arbitration Process - Update
January 15, 2022 at 12:35 PM
The Local continues to fight for your rights in the workplace by enforcing the collective agreement via the Grievance-Arbitration process.
While this process can take an extraordinary amount of time and resources, they are extremely important in our work to defend the rights of our members.
In October 2020, the Local 500 Executive approved an increase of $500,000 to the legal fees portion of the Local’s budget. Once again, the Local is looking to increase the budget in order to deal with the unprecedented number of arbitration referrals.
“We have a record number of grievances and pending arbitrations on the books that need to be resolved,” said Local 500 President Gord Delbridge. “As always, we will take the appropriate action and provide the necessary resources to ensure our members' concerns are addressed and their rights are protected.”
Currently, the Local has 230 active grievances, 76 arbitration referrals and six grievances awaiting an external legal opinion.
“We are deeply concerned that we have to keep pushing grievances to arbitration that are resolvable," said Delbridge. “It is both a time consuming and costly process for both parties involved."
The Local will continue to keep the membership updated on this important issue.
Know Your Rights at Work:
As a CUPE Local 500 member, most of your rights are set out in a collective agreement - a contract - negotiated between the union and your employer. Local 500 collectively bargains and administers 18 different collective agreements for its members. You can find a copy of your collective agreement here.
If you think that your rights have been violated or you have a concern, then please reach out to your shop steward or member of your Unit executive. You can also contact the Local 500 office at 204.942-1001 or union@cupe500.mb.ca.
