The Bargaining Team (BT) for Units 1, 2, and 3 met for the fourth time on Thursday April 13.
Agenda
1) Shopper’s Drug Mart Incident
2) Staff Presentation on Bargaining Issues
3) Anti-Oppression Training
4) Bargaining Posters
5) Updates on Surveys
6) Membership Contact Info (not) provided by employer
7) Employment Equity Issues
8) Training
9) Next Meeting
Shopper’s Drug Mart Incident in York Lanes
Looking at the Bargaining Surveys, members have frequently been mentioning racism and Islamophobia. And they are pointing to the Shoppers Drug Mart incident on campus, where a student was injured by store security. Members are really upset, disappointed and angry about it. It is seen as a student and community safety issue. What is York doing about it? How does Shoppers have this space on campus? It is important that we as the BT express our concern.
Staff presentation on bargaining issues
Every round, staff members provide a detailed list of issues based on experience dealing with members’ concerns and grievances and based on previous rounds of bargaining. Staff provided a handout and went over the issues.
The possibility of compiling a summary specifically of grievances was also discussed.
Anti-Oppression Training:
An introductory discussion of our expectations and hopes for the training was held. Our Equity Officer will follow-up with individual surveys for the BT members. We will set a date for the training when we meet on April 24 and 25.
Bargaining Posters:
A member has just produced a poster for bargaining to make alert members that our contract is expiring, we are heading into bargaining, and promoting bargaining survey. The poster has been distributed to the BT to check-out and comment on.
Update on Bargaining Surveys and Outreach:
At this point we have about 250 Unit 1 surveys completed (split fairly evenly between paper and online surveys). We have about 220 Unit 2 surveys done, the vast majority online.
The Unit 1 contract workshops have been very successful and the BT has been following up to encourage members to complete the survey. Unit 2 has a bargaining townhall meeting on April 20. Departments have been leafletted and emails reminders continue to be sent out.
Membership Contact Info (not) provided by employer
There are very serious gaps in the contact information provided by the Employer about our members. We are exploring our options to follow up and pursue this to get the employer to meet the requirements of the CA.
Employment Equity Issues:
Equity issues were discussed as part of the staff presentation about bargaining issues. We will have a further discussion of the Employment Equity issues and principles at our next BT meeting.
Training:
We have our Bargaining Preparation Workshop with CUPE National scheduled for April 24 and 25. The session with Jane McAlevey will take place on April 20 or May 4. A doodle poll will be sent out.
Next meeting:
to be scheduled when we gather at the Bargaining Prep Workshop on April 24 and 25.