October 24, 2022 – Last week, your bargaining committee spent all week in Calgary with the company in negotiations. This marks the 3rd week of negotiations after having exchanged proposals in July.
The week started slowly with not a lot of movement from either party however things took a positive turn when the company started to acknowledge and respond to our proposals. We were able to tentatively agree on a number of proposals and the process began to pick up some momentum.
We are still not close on wages and the company has not provided us with an update on their proposal for expenses. These are obviously two of our larger proposals and we are still advocating for significant increases to both of these to offset the generational interest rate hikes and inflation.
We continue to work through the Pension Improvement account and the possibilities that come with this. In respect to the surplus in the Employment Security fund, we are working through the possibilities in how this surplus is used in an effective manner that all members would see benefit from.
The good news out of this is that we are still negotiating and although it is taking some time to get through this negotiation process, we are committed to securing an agreement that addresses as many of our member’s issues as possible. This is not something that we are willing to rush into and bring back something that does not have benefit to our membership.
We will be continuing through the month of November via Zoom meetings and meeting in the last week of November in person again. It will be more evident in this week in late November if we are at an impasse and will need to seek the help of the Federal Mediation Services or if the parties will have come together and been able to continue with headway. Our goal remains to come to a negotiated settlement and we will continue to do so until there is no possibility of an agreement.
We appreciate the patience of our membership as we work through this process and we remain committed to coming to a negotiated settlement that sees as many improvements as possible.
Wade Phillips President
TCRC MWED
Toll Free 1(800)567-0571
Cellular 1(613)922-4162
Fax 1(613)526-5149
wphillips@tcrcmwed.ca
