Public Service Alliance of Canada BC

We met with the Employer on July 22nd and 23rd with the assistance of conciliation officers John Rooney and Bill Lewis. We spent some time bringing the two conciliation officers up to date on the outstanding proposals. At the request of the conciliation officers, your negotiating team put together a comprehensive response on all of the outstanding issues which we presented to the Employer Wednesday afternoon. Your negotiating team made substantial movement on a majority of our previous proposal package which we felt established the framework for a new collective agreement. The Employer advised us that they would respond Thursday morning.

The Employer’s response consisted of slight revisions to their previous package dated May 7, 2009. With that response, it is evident that the Employer is not prepared to acknowledge your bargaining proposals. Further, that they have no interest at this time in achieving a fair negotiated settlement:

• The employer has offered us economic increases of 2%, 2%, and 2.5% for a three year deal. Every other sizeable airport across the country has received annual economic increases of 3% or more.
• The employer has refused to address almost all of our other proposals on improving our insurance plans, flexible hours of work, protecting the benefits of new members, and improving leave provisions.

At this point, the only way that we will be able to obtain a better offer from the employer is to get your support through a strike vote. We plan to be back in negotiations after the vote. We requested additional dates to continue the conciliation process and we will be back in negotiations on August 21st.

Further information on the details of when and where the strike vote will occur will follow. Visit local20221.com for more information