Community Support - Locals 402, 403, and 405 - Bargaining Brief

Updated: May 12, 2022
Approx. Number of Members: 2470
Current Contract Expires: March 31, 2018
MGEU Staff Negotiator: Angela Bouchard
Elected Bargaining Committee Members: Tammy Crowe, Local President, Prairie Mountain, Local 402 Cora Meyer, Chief Steward, Prairie Mountain, Local 402 Dana Troke, Chief Steward, Prairie Mountain, Local 403 Kirk Carr, Chief Steward, Prairie Mountain, Area 3 Shirley Russell, Vice-President, Interlake-Eastern, Local 405 Florence Sadkowski, Chief Steward, IERHA Area 5

LATEST BARGAINING NEWS

The Community Support - Locals 402, 403, and 405 Bargaining Committee and the employer moved on to  wages and benefits talks in March 2022.

The Committee recognizes that members are anxious to conclude this part of the process, but are committed to giving careful attention to these issues and taking the time necessary to negotiate the best collective agreement possible.  Please stay tuned.

Overview of Bargaining - 2021 

The Community Support Bargaining Committee met with the employer committee in spring 2021 to talk about bargaining and how to proceed after significant delays, including the representation votes and the global pandemic.

As a result of the representation votes, this round of bargaining must include the merging a number of existing contract provisions into one collective agreement which will apply to all members in the new bargaining units. The Bargaining Committee has worked hard to review all applicable collective agreements in preparation for this work.

The Committee and the employer agreed to begin discussing a number of issues which have to do with employment processes common to all current agreements (but may be different in each). Essential service agreements for those facilities still without such an agreement were also discussed. Proposals on other issues, including wages and benefits, are being held back until the employer shares their full proposal package.

However, before bargaining began in summer 2021, the Community Support Bargaining Committee decided to ask the membership for a strike mandate.

Other unions which had been at the table had been treated unfairly and the Committee had every reason to believe that our members will be treated this way as well. For example, seniority rights were threatened and the employer refused to talk about wages and benefits.

For this reason, support workers in other regions were also asked to provide their bargaining committee with a strike mandate.

Providing a strike mandate does not necessarily mean members will go on strike. The intention is that a third party arbitrator will intervene and assist at the bargaining table, if necessary.

Votes were cast electronically (online) or by phone and counted on August 31, 2021.

Health Care Support Service and Community Support members in Interlake-Eastern RHA and Prairie Mountain Health delivered a resounding strike mandate to their Bargaining Committees on August 31, 2021, authorizing them to take job action should it be warranted.

Essential Services Agreements were signed off and the Committee remains ready to take job action should it be necessary.   

The Community Support - Locals 402, 403, and 405 Bargaining Committee then began meeting with the employer on a weekly basis, working through “non-monetary” items such as contract language and working conditions. This was a time-consuming process because a number of different collective agreements were being merged.

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