Bargaining Update from our 2nd National Vice President

As the UTE 2nd National Vice President responsible for bargaining, I am writing to all members to give you an update on our negotiations.

We are trying to keep you informed of our attempts to return to the table and we understand that everyone is frustrated with the length of time this round of bargaining is taking. I am committing to you that I will post on the UTE website an update every two weeks. These updates may not contain any new information but they will keep you up to date.

To date:

  • On December 2, 2015 our National UTE President, Bob Campbell, provided an update on the state of negotiations with the CRA. Also in December, the National President’s message in the UTE Newsletter focused on bargaining.
  • Unfortunately, I am not able to bring you good news. Nothing has changed since that update.  The Minister of National Revenue has still not responded to Brother Campbell’s letter requesting a meeting and asking that the CRA return to the negotiations table with a mandate to settle our contract.
  • We have no dates to return to the bargaining table.  We have asked and our team is ready to go back and negotiate a fair and reasonable collective agreement. We have been without an agreement since October 31, 2012 and I can assure you the bargaining team shares the frustration of the membership.  The CRA has no new mandate at this time and we continue to hope the new government will change this.  Brother Campbell is still in the process of securing a meeting with the new Treasury Board President, Scott Brison.
  • In order to put pressure on the CRA, we have launched a grievance campaign.  We are asking all members to file a grievance in an attempt to get the CRA back to the table to negotiate a fair and reasonable collective agreement. I encourage each of you to contact a Local Executive Officer to complete the required paperwork.  Also, please contact your Member of Parliament and ask for their help in putting pressure on the Treasury Board to allow CRA to negotiate. Also, you can email the CRA Commissioner and request that they return to the table. All such actions will help to end this long round of negotiations.
  • You may have seen over the past few weeks that the PSAC Treasury Board and the PIPSC teams have dates to go back to table in February.  These are separate bargaining teams.  We are the PSAC - CRA bargaining team. The establishment of these dates confuses us since the new Government has not yet determined its negotiations mandate.  In order to get the correct information on our bargaining I would encourage members to speak to their local representatives and refer to this web page periodically.

We have heard from the membership that you want the teams to go back to the bargaining table and that is what your bargaining team wants as well.  We all have to work together to make this happen

We have stood together through this long process and together we can reach a fair contract for all of us. Please show your support for the Bargaining team and speak to your Local representative regarding all bargaining activities.

In Solidarity,

Madonna Z. Gardiner, 2nd National Vice-President, UTE
Member of the PSAC/UTE Negotiating Team