The February 16th Final Offer Special Membership Meeting today certainly offered new challenges, but also offered some important progress in bargaining!
To begin, we want to sincerely apologize for the significant technological issues we faced. This was the first time in local history that the final offer SGMM was not held in-person, and the hybrid model posed some serious, and unexpected, challenges. This year we have been navigating and learning the dynamics of hybrid meetings in order to make meetings as accessible as possible, but today showed that we still have things to figure out, and for that, we truly apologize. We understand how important member’s time is and appreciate everyone’s patience.
On a high note, today was the best attended union meeting CUPE 3903 has had in many years! It is exciting to see so many members, new and familiar, getting involved in the bargaining process! Thank you to each and every member for your insights, questions, debates and guidance – We are our strongest when we are all organizing together.
We had nearly 600 votes, and there was a clear indication to reject to Employer’s final offer.
Unit 1
Voted to reject final offer: 288 (69%)
Voted to accepted final offer: 132 (31%)
Unit 2
Voted to reject final offer: 122 (73%)
Voted to accepted final offer: 44 (27%)
Unit 3
Voted to reject final offer: 4 (100.0%)
After an extremely long meeting membership moved to continue the conversation about next steps to an emergency SGMM in a week’s time.
In order to have more time to address members important questions about what a strike action could look we be holding a Strike Q&A over Zoom on Thursday the 22nd from 2-4pm. Zoom link:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87036429777?pwd=TjlFeGdVOXNnbVA3UTZGQVp5KzROUT09
Here is the STRIKE FAQ 2024 in preparation.
We will then be holding a Special General Membership Meeting to discuss next steps, and if it is so motioned by the membership, potentially voting on a strike motion next week on Friday the 23rd from 9am-12pm. All votes will take place in the meeting (no outside programs). Here is a registration link, please register in advance:
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZcudu-uqD0jGdX__c3OKXDCKrM6NXARNYTI#/registration
Thank you for your participation. We’re making progress!