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Beacon Hill Lodge - Local 80 - Bargaining Brief
Updated: Feb 22, 2021
Approx. Number of Members: 129
Current Contract Expires: March 31, 2017
MGEU Staff Negotiator: Loren Findlay
Elected Bargaining Committee Members: Shannon Bland - President
Alexis Carlton - Vice-President
LATEST BARGAINING NEWS
The Beacon Hill Lodge - Local 80 Bargaining Committee is once again collecting bargaining proposals from members, both on-line and through the mail.
The deadline to submit proposals was Friday, October 30. Please stay tuned for a meeting (as public health guidelines allow) where members can vote on the latest proposals.
Overview of bargaining so far
Members of Beacon Hill Lodge - Local 80 had the opportunity to share their ideas and proposals for improving their collective agreement at a bargaining proposal meeting in December 2016.
The Bargaining Committee then reviewed these proposals and worked to pull them together into a package to submit to the employer.
However, by the end of 2017, even though all HCSS agreements had expired and MGEU Bargaining Committees were ready and eager to get going, negotiations had not begun. Employers — including Beacon Hill, Poseidon, Golden Door, and St. Norbert — were unwilling to schedule bargaining dates.
One issue was that in 2017, the government announced they wanted HCSS workers in each health region to be covered by one union and one collective agreement — but did not proclaim the legislation (Bill 29) until May 2018. During that time, the employers at the private PCHs refused to come to the table until they knew for sure that their employees would not be involved in representation votes. Once the Bill was proclaimed, the MGEU pressured private employers to finally sit down and begin negotiations -- however, they said since public sector negotiations would be delayed due to the Bill 29 union representation votes, private sector bargaining could not begin either.
The union representation votes that delayed all health care sector bargaining wrapped up in late August 2019 and members moved to their new unions in December 2019.
The
MGEU and the Beacon Hill
Lodge - Local 80 Bargaining Committee remained committed to getting on with
negotiating a new contract for Local 80 as soon as possible.
After the votes concluded, the MGEU met with
the Local presidents of private PCH Locals and, because so much
time had passed, it was agreed to schedule new proposal meetings. A Beacon Hill Lodge - Local 80 meeting was held in March 2020, but then the pandemic hit and public health
restrictions delayed meetings with the employer.
Bill 28 and its impact on Bargaining in the private PCHs
In 2017, the government also announced that they would not consider giving any public service workers any general pay increase for the first two years of their new contract. This would include all HCSS members who work in public PCHs.
The employers of the private PCHs continue to tell the MGEU that since there is no money for the public PCHs, the private PCHs will not get funding either.
This is not fair. So along with other Manitoba unions, the MGEU formed the Partnership to Defend Public Services to challenge the government in court they’re doing goes against Canadian laws – all workers have the right to negotiate a fair contract, including their wages.
The trial was held over a few days in November 2019. MGEU President
Michelle Gawronsky took the stand as the 4th PDPS witness.
Economists, other labour leaders, labour relations experts, as well as several
MGEU staff were also called to testify.
All of this testimony added to the body of evidence placed before the judge,
which already includes 37 affidavits and more than 100 pages of
agreed upon facts.
In January 2020, the PDPS and the Government filed their written
arguments with the court. Final arguments were heard over three days in
February.
On
June 11, a Court of Queen's Bench judge ruled in favour of the unions,
agreeing that Bill 28 violated members' rights under the Canadian
Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
Since then, the union has been working with MGEU lawyers to review the Judge’s 236-page ruling and
determine next steps.
As part of the trial, the parties are returning to court to pursue
additional remedies, such as damages and recovery of court costs. MGEU
lawyers are preparing for these hearings and trying to secure dates for
the fall. The government has advised that they are considering appealing the
court ruling.
While this goes forward, dates in November 2021 have also been set by the court for the second part of the Court of Queen’s Bench trial, to determine any additional remedies that go beyond having Bill 28struck down. Meanwhile, the MGEU and the other PDPS partners continue to focus on trying to get back to the bargaining table.