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OPSEU LOCAL 499

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August 13th, 2010 - Regional Educational to be held on Oct. 23, 24, 2010 Download the Application

August 9th, 2010 - Kingston prison farm protesters form blockade

August 8th, 2010 - A Canada Border Services Agency officer who had to give up her full-time position after the birth of her first child has won a six-year battle with her employer over its failure to accommodate her

July 2010 : Collective Agreement Update:

As was said to the Delegates at our Convention caucus: “it is amazing and frustrating that the process of editing and finalizing the contract has taken longer than it took to bargain it in the first place!”.

We did not receive a full draft from the Employer until mid-January of this year. The Edit Committee immediately discovered numerous problems, from minor typographical errors, to salary grid anomalies, to changes that had not even been originally negotiated. Through a series of face-to-face meetings we have finally been able to resolve these with the Employer.

At our last meeting on June 14th the problems with the draft collective agreement appeared resolved. The Employer is now doing a re-formatting to fix some pagination and paragraph problems.

Remaining at issue is the final Date of Ratification. The Union ratified the tentative settlement on July 14, 2009. The Employer ratified on July 17, 2009. However, the Employer also maintains that the negotiated changes do not come into effect until approval is received via an Order-in-Council (OIC) from the Government. The Union completely disagrees with that position, especially since the OIC was not issued until August 28, 2009....a delay of over six weeks! Numerous grievances have now been filed by individual members who have been disadvantaged by the delay.

The Union is challenging the Employer’s position in this matter.

In the meantime, we have agreed to prepare and distribute an Interim copy of the collective agreement for reference in the workplace. Other than the Date of Ratification, the Interim copy will reflect the agreement of the Union and the Employer on the content.

Interim copies will be so marked, in letter-sized (8 ½” x 11’) format. One copy will be sent to each Store / Department, to each Manager and to each OPSEU Steward. A date for this distribution has not yet been agreed. Locals may wish to duplicate the Interim copies for their members.

Once the Date of Ratification issue has been resolved, the contract will be printed in the usual pocket-sized format and distributed to all employees internally.

Edit Committee: Vanda Klumper, Denise Davis, Dora Robinson, Rob Field, Joyce Hansen

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Presidents Address (March 29th,2010)

On Friday March 19th I met with LCBO District Manager Lou Recchi who was accompanied by an HR representative. One of the issues raised at that meeting was the unions concern regarding the employer’s procedures for investigations. This employer has put the union on notice that they will no longer be inclusive and forth coming with the union. We were told that they will not be consulting with us, and further they will not be disclosing in advance any information, or questions that they will be asking members. Not only will they not be disclosing but they will also not be including the union in any of the results or discipline of members that may follow. Speaking on behalf of Paul “New Sherriff in Town” Mancini, Lou stated that they do not have to share this information, and they have no intention to do so in the future. He said that to do so it would compromise their investigations.

The unions concerns are obvious and many, failure to disclose leads us to questions what the employers intentions are. In the interest of the union members, we have no choice but to protect employees from improper investigations. We have become aware that questions asked were in violation of privacy, human rights and can result in disciplinary action. Possible disciplinary action can be a result of allegations being investigation or questions asked as part of the investigation. These questions may or may not have anything to do with the allegations being investigated.

While the union believes that every employee has a right to work in a harassment free work place, free from bullying and treated with respect and dignity we cannot support the employer’s position of exclusion. As a result of the employers strong position we will not be supporting any investigations in local 499 other locals in the region are also expressing frustration. We are recommending that for member’s best interest that they do not participate in any investigation or exchange of information with the employer since doing so may result in disciplinary action.

I have also been receiving calls from members regarding transfers. Last week the union held a meeting with Lou Recchi, a Steward and a member that had recently been transferred. The purpose of the meeting was to address the members concerns regarding the transfer. Lou informed the Steward that if he was going to bring members concerns forward that they were going to be seeing a lot more of each other as there are many more transfers coming. The union does not believe that the employer is considering any adverse effects that transfers may have on employees. The union will continue to bring members concerns to this employer. We have heard Paul Mancini state that “he has a business to run” however he also requires employees to run this business. It is our position that all though we recognize management s needs to transfer under certain circumstances; we feel that the employer should take into considerations the needs of its employees. The arbitrary use of transfers is not conducive to good employee relations

In Solidarity,
Lori Davis
President #499
Vice Chair LBED