To: All BTS Locals in Ontario
May 28, 2018
Brothers and Sisters,
As we enter into our 4th week under the new Collective Agreement, we as a committee felt it important that we bring you up to speed on where things are between the Union and your employer, BTS.
There have been many rumours going around regarding the signing of the Collective Agreement, and as to the reason it is not yet been done. To this point we can say, we have completed a review of the new agreement, identified errors and changes that were made by the Company have now been corrected. We are reviewing the revised copy as final proofing to be signed in the coming weeks. Once signed electronic copies will be made available, while we wait for printed copies.
Having said that, the Union and the Company are currently in dispute on one issue regarding the new Collective Agreement and its implementation. The issue is non-consecutive days of rest for fulltime employees, better known as “island days”. The Union negotiated in our view that days of rests for fulltime employees must be consecutive to another. The employer has communicated to the Union that it was not their intent to always give consecutive days off to fulltime employees. They said they have realized it is too difficult for them to do and they never would have agreed to it, followed by a host of what we determined to be threats regarding the scheduling of the membership. The Committee has escalated this dispute to the National Union and a National Policy Grievance has been filed.
The Company says they are trying to change the relationship with their employees, but continue to demonstrate the same lack of desire to change the way they run the business that we have experienced under the previous Collective Agreement. They appear to continue to look for work arounds to language and cast the blame on clerical bargaining unit members for “errors” that get made related to the never-ending schedule issues………………………..