Health Care Bargaining Update #5
May 07, 2021 at 6:30 PM
The CUPE Bargaining Council and the Provincial Health Labour Relations Services (PHLRS) met on April 7, 14, 27 & 28 and May 5, 2021. The next dates we have set to meet with the PHLRS are May 11, 19, 26 and June 2, 9, 16 and 23, 2021.
This round of bargaining is unique. We are merging over 120 collective agreements into one. This has never been done before to this scale. Your Bargaining Council worked tirelessly to review all the current collective agreements and reviewed the survey results to prepare the proposal package that was presented.
As well as all the collective agreements that were reviewed and incorporated into our proposals, there were over 350 Letters of Understanding (LOUs)/Memorandums of Understanding (MOUs) from the back of the collective agreements that also had to be reviewed. LOUs/MOUs contain important rules that the Employer must follow. Each previous collective agreement had unique LOUs/MOUs. The Bargaining Council spent an entire week reviewing the LOUs/MOUs. The relevant ones have been amended and added to our proposal package.
As we previously reported, we ran into an issue regarding the application of seniority when applying for a vacancy. The Bargaining Council and the PHLRS have had many discussions on this issue, working through many scenarios. Together with the PHLRS we have clarified the misunderstandings and are close to resolving this issue. This will allow the Bargaining Council to move forward on other proposals.
Please make sure we have your most recent contact information, including cell phone number and personal email. We do not use work contact information to reach you for union business.
If you have any questions or comments, please send an email to healthcare@cupe.ca.
SMc:cbc/cope 491
