Archive for November, 2011

Brothers and Sisters,

I wanted to take a moment to update our membership on progress with several issues that the union has been pursuing.  Each of them has involved a great deal of time spent by your Local Union Executive Board, our CAW National Rep and in several cases, members of the CAW Legal Team and the office of CAW President, Ken Lewenza.

Our affiliation with the CAW has been a tremendous asset and the ability to pursue these matters with the help of legal council is of great importance.  However, with the number of issues that we have brought forward, it does not make the process any faster.  Needless to say, it has taken time to get all parties up to speed.  However, we are now at an important point and I wanted to advise you of our progress.

Please find an update on several of our top priority issues below.

Arbitration re. staff rebalancing/reassignment:  

Arbitrator Louisa Davie has been mutually agreed to by the union and the company.  Arbitration dates will follow and be provided as soon as they are confirmed.

Many of you will recall that this case was previously set for an arbitration hearing several months ago.  However, due to the overall scope of the issue and the sheer number of employees affected, it was mutually agreed on the advice of our CAW National Office that putting the entire case in front of a single arbitrator would require a tremendous amount of time and money.

The intention was that both parties would work to isolate the individual issues and resolve them, if possible – any outstanding issues would then be progressed to arbitration.

Although the Local has done it’s best to resolve the matter, enough time has passed without substantive progress on the issues.  The union contends that the company has not given the matter the attention it deserves, resulting in our decision to progress this matter to arbitration.

Our case has been sufficiently narrowed and focused and we expect that the outcome at arbitration will be sufficient to resolve the outstanding grievances.

Arbitration re. contracting of union work:  

Our Local union has progressed several grievances to arbitration re. the contracting of union work, primarily in the area of Field Operations.

Recently, a meeting was held and attended by Dylan Gadwa, President of CAW Local 2000 together with our CAW National Rep and our CAW Legal Council together with company officers and their legal team to move forward on the issues.

Due to the number of cases being presented, the union and the company have agreed to have them hear before several different arbitrators.

The first arbitrator has been selected:  Marry Ellen Cummings.  Arbitration dates in January and March have been proposed.  We will issue another update as soon as arbitrators are agreed and dates are confirmed.

Matters related to the scope of the bargaining unit:  

Our Local union has identified a significant number of jobs in many areas of the operation that currently being done by non-union employees.  The union maintains that these jobs fall under the scope of our bargaining unit as per Article 3.02 of the collective agreement.

Again, due to the complexity and number of workers, the Legal Department of the CAW has been engaged to assist.  Last week, Local President Dylan Gadwa met with RJ Orr, the newly appointed Assistant to Ken Lewenza, President of the CAW.  The purpose of this meeting was to ensure that our Local continues to have the support of the highest levels of the CAW National Office.

In summary:

Our Local continues to receive a tremendous level of support from all levels of the CAW National Office.  The fact is that we have not just one or two but three extremely complex and challenging issues that we are coordinating with various parties at the highest levels of the CAW.  Because they are being handled simultaneously, this has added to the the time it takes to resolve them.

On behalf of your Local 2000 Executive Board, I want to re-confirm our commitment to seeing these issues through to completion and personally thank our membership for their continued patience and solidarity.

If after reading this update you have any additional questions, please do not hesitate to contact me or your Regional VP.

With thanks,

Dylan Gadwa
President – CAW Local 2000