Unifor CNTL Owner-Operators Ratify New Collective Agreement
October 2, 2019
On Friday, October 25, 2019 in Montreal, Unifor formally opened national negotiations with VIA Rail Canada on behalf of the 2,200 Unifor members employed at VIA Rail - 1,550 who are members of Unifor National Council 4000. Unifor National President Jerry Dias was in attendance, along with his Executive Assistant Scott Doherty who joined both bargaining committees. There are three collective agreements that cover Unifor members at VIA - Agreement No.1 (Off-Board employees - Council 400); Agreement No.2 (On-Train employees - Council 4000); and Agreement No.3 (Shop Craft employees - Local 100).
On Saturday, October 26, Council 4000's full-time Regional Representatives, the Council's President and Secretary Treasurer, and the Union's National Representatives met with the Corporation to deliberate on grievance resolutions before actual collective bargaining commences. Several grievances were resolved and of the those that could not be resolved favourably, they will be advanced to mediated arbitration on November 26, 2019 at the Canadian Railway Office of Arbitration (CROA) in Montreal before Arbitrator J.F.W. Weatherill, or to regular CROA hearings in the year 2020 based on scheduling and grievance caseloads.
Bargaining for Council 4000 will begin on November 5 in Montreal and will continue through to November 8. Additional bargaining sessions have been confirmed for the first week in December (December 3-6) also in Montreal. Both November and December's bargaining will focus on proposals related to work rules and other collective agreement matters for Agreements 1 and 2. Monetary talks will not start until our work rule proposals are finalized. Once we turn to wages and benefits, those deliberations will be held at the main table where Council 4000 will join Local 100.
The bargaining priorities of Council 4000 are those that were received from our VIA membership from across Canada following our online VIA Rail Bargaining Surveys that were made available to the membership from June 10 to July 26, 2019 on www.unifor4000.com. The bargaining priorities as determined by the Council 4000 membership (Locals 4001, 4002, 4003, 4004 and 4005) were as follows:
- Fair Wage Increases
- Improve Benefits
- Paid Sick Time
- Improve Rest Period and Work/Life balance for Agreement 2 members
- Improve Pension Plan
During the bargaining process, the Union will post updates as the information becomes available by way of Unifor RailLINE postings, the Union's National website (unifor.org) and social media sites. Council 4000 will also post updates on their website (unifor4000.com) and their social media sites (Facebook and Twitter).
In Solidarity,
Your Unifor National Council 4000 VIA Rail Bargaining Committee
|
Ron Shore
Regional Representative Unifor National Council 4000 Mountain Region (Local 4001) Laura Hazlitt Regional Representative Unifor National Council 4000 Prairie Region (Local 4002) Andrew Stephen Regional Representative Unifor National Council 4000 Great Lakes Region (Local 4003) Mario Laroche Regional Representative Unifor National Council 4000 St. Lawrence Region (Local 4004) Jennifer Murray Regional Representative Unifor National Council 4000 Atlantic Region (Local 4005) |
Dave Kissack
President Unifor National Council 4000 Danny Andru Secretary Treasurer Unifor National Council 4000 Barry Kennedy National Representative Unifor Myriam Germain National Representative Unifor Scott Doherty Executive Assistant to the National President Unifor |
