Unifor to officially open negotiations with VIA Rail tomorrow in Montreal
October 29, 2015
Unifor and VIA Rail will meet tomorrow (October 30th) in Montreal to officially open negotiations for new contracts for members of Council 4000 and Local 100. Unifor has three collective agreements with the Crown Corporation that govern more than 2000 Unifor members who work in ticket sales, as Counter Sales Agents, baggage, Locomotive Attendants, office administration and labourers (Agreement No.1 - Unifor Council 4000), Chefs and on board train Service Attendants (Agreement 2 - Council 4000), and Electricians, Rail Car Technicians and Diesel Engine Mechanics (Agreement No.3 - Unifor Local 100). The current collective agreements expire at 23:59 local time on December 31, 2015.
Unifor National President Jerry Dias will join the bargaining committees of Council 4000 and Local 100 to kick off VIA Bargaining. The members of the bargaining committees are as follows:
Unifor National President Jerry Dias will join the bargaining committees of Council 4000 and Local 100 to kick off VIA Bargaining. The members of the bargaining committees are as follows:
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Council 4000
Barry Kennedy - President, Council 400 Danny Andru - Secretary Treasurer, Council 4000 Jennifer Murray - Regional Representative, Atlantic Region (Local 4005) Mario Laroche - Regional Representative, St. Lawrence Region (Local 4004) Andrew Stephen - Regional Representative, Great Lakes Region (Local 4003) Dave Kissack - Regional Representative, Prairie Region (Local 4002) Ron Shore - Regional Representative, Mountain Region (Local 4001) Myriam Germain - National Representative/Montreal Area Director, Unifor Bob Fitzgerald - National Representative, Unifor Bob Orr - Assistant to the National Secretary Treasurer, Unifor |
Local 100
Ken Hiatt - President, Local 100 Jacques Ouimet - Regional Vice President, Atlantic/St. Lawrence Region Ashok Venkatarangam - Regional Vice President, Great Lakes Region Terry McKimm - Regional Vice President, Prairie Region Zoltan Czippel - Regional Vice President, Mountain Region Chris Garrod - Legislative Coordinator Nicolas Bougeois - Executive Council Member Brian Stevens, National Representative/Director of Rail, Unifor Bob Orr - Assistant to the National Secretary Treasurer, Unifor |
With the results of the recent federal election seeing the Liberals sweep into power with a majority government, there are many who are hoping that this will see a change to the funding model for VIA Rail, a Crown corporation that the Harper Conservatives drastically reduced during their 9+ years in office. This 'hope' includes VIA themselves.
In 2011-2012, VIA’s operating budget was almost $494 million. In 2012, the Harper government announced sweeping changes and cuts to the Federal civil service and Crown corporations, which included VIA Rail, which saw a reduction of more than 18 million dollars out of VIA’s budget operating budget that prompted the corporation to implement significant service reductions across the country, particularly in Atlantic and Western Canada. Then in February of 2013, while we were at the bargaining table with VIA, the Harper government announced an additional reduction to funding for VIA, this time by almost $290 million, which was more than half of what their budget was at the start of 2013. VIA’s funding went from almost $494 million in 2011-2012 down to a mere $187,783,000.00 to run a national passenger rail service.
Despite Unifor bargaining with VIA during that drastic time of funding reductions, we were still able to negotiate a decent deal for our members, including benefit improvements and wage increases of 3% - 3% - 2% for 2013, 2014 and 2015.
Until the federal government commits to increase its funding to VIA Rail, it will make for another difficult round of bargaining with the Crown corporation. VIA said that it will submit a $4 billion dedicated track plan for the busy Toronto-Ottawa-Montreal corridor to the new transport minister within months of the Liberal’s announcing their new cabinet on November 4th. But VIA’s desire for more funding is centered more on infrastructure spending, and not necessarily on improving workers' wages and benefits.
The Unifor National Council 4000 VIA Rail Bargaining Committee met in Montreal the week of September 14, 2015 to formulate our contract proposals. Click on the link below to view the results of our VIA Rail Bargaining Survey taken amongst our VIA Rail membership governed under Collective Agreements 1 and 2.
Actual bargaining will commence the week of November 9th and November 23rd for the Council 4000 Bargaining Committee, and December 7th for the Local 100 Bargaining Committee. We will post bargaining updates when information becomes available on www.unifor4000.com, our Council 4000 social media sites, and Unifor RailLINE.
Follow Unifor Council 4000 VIA Rail Bargaining on Twitter using the hash tag - #Unifor4000VIAnegs
Related:
October 28, 2015 Results of the Unifor Council 4000 VIA Rail Bargaining Survey
In 2011-2012, VIA’s operating budget was almost $494 million. In 2012, the Harper government announced sweeping changes and cuts to the Federal civil service and Crown corporations, which included VIA Rail, which saw a reduction of more than 18 million dollars out of VIA’s budget operating budget that prompted the corporation to implement significant service reductions across the country, particularly in Atlantic and Western Canada. Then in February of 2013, while we were at the bargaining table with VIA, the Harper government announced an additional reduction to funding for VIA, this time by almost $290 million, which was more than half of what their budget was at the start of 2013. VIA’s funding went from almost $494 million in 2011-2012 down to a mere $187,783,000.00 to run a national passenger rail service.
Despite Unifor bargaining with VIA during that drastic time of funding reductions, we were still able to negotiate a decent deal for our members, including benefit improvements and wage increases of 3% - 3% - 2% for 2013, 2014 and 2015.
Until the federal government commits to increase its funding to VIA Rail, it will make for another difficult round of bargaining with the Crown corporation. VIA said that it will submit a $4 billion dedicated track plan for the busy Toronto-Ottawa-Montreal corridor to the new transport minister within months of the Liberal’s announcing their new cabinet on November 4th. But VIA’s desire for more funding is centered more on infrastructure spending, and not necessarily on improving workers' wages and benefits.
The Unifor National Council 4000 VIA Rail Bargaining Committee met in Montreal the week of September 14, 2015 to formulate our contract proposals. Click on the link below to view the results of our VIA Rail Bargaining Survey taken amongst our VIA Rail membership governed under Collective Agreements 1 and 2.
Actual bargaining will commence the week of November 9th and November 23rd for the Council 4000 Bargaining Committee, and December 7th for the Local 100 Bargaining Committee. We will post bargaining updates when information becomes available on www.unifor4000.com, our Council 4000 social media sites, and Unifor RailLINE.
Follow Unifor Council 4000 VIA Rail Bargaining on Twitter using the hash tag - #Unifor4000VIAnegs
Related:
October 28, 2015 Results of the Unifor Council 4000 VIA Rail Bargaining Survey
