Union News - October 2023
It seems as though bargaining never ends. Either we are in negotiations or monitoring the collective agreement until the next round of negotiations, which, even though we have a bit of a pause, is really right around the corner.
We have begun work on pursuing strikebreakers/scabs. Of equal importance, we are facing several challenges that we need to keep in mind for the next round: primarily the potential of a new government as an election can happen at any time; and second, the increasing use of machine learning or artificial intelligence (AI) and its effect on our workforce.
In order to address these challenges and to prepare ourselves to negotiate in such an environment, we will need to see demands that identify and propose to protect our membership against these forces.
The UTE has long implemented what we call the “on-going demand process”. That is to say that we continually receive demands from locals across the country for consideration in the next round of bargaining. This is truly your opportunity to highlight problems you have identified or workplace issues you think can be addressed through the negotiation process.
In order to facilitate this process, you will need to speak with your local executive ( https://www.ute-sei.org/en/about/locals) and they will be able to fill out a form to send to the national office. We continually add these to a collection of demands that will be reviewed by the bargaining committee as we get closer to serving notice to bargain.
We believe this process is very important because it is you, the member, who is immersed in the day-to-day work; you know the hurdles you face, such as leave provisions or work-life balance issues.
Once the bargaining committee reviews the submissions, we then put together the package of demands that forms the basis for our negotiations. Of course, not all demands make it, but we do try to incorporate those that are numerous or similar and speak to common concerns in the workplace.
Take this opportunity to become involved in the process. We feel it is very important to have demands from the shop floor so to speak, rather than a few determining what is important for our members. We also take demands from our UTE labour relations officers, who have seen first-hand what grievances have been filed and how to address those situations. They see a broad spectrum of issues and what is required to fix the problems that have been highlighted.
Please feel free to reach out to your executive and talk about any ideas you may have to better our working conditions for the future.
In Solidarity,
Adam Jackson
2nd Vice-president, responsible for Collective Bargaining