Friends,

Please join us in welcoming our newest members from the Chinatown Community Branch. We are now at approximately 837 workers giving us a loud and powerful collective voice.

We now have CAT members at almost every branch and department including, the Chinatown Community Branch. The members of CAT will be reaching out to workers at their assigned departments or branches with updates, asks and requests for feedback. Between the bargaining committee and CAT, you should be able to quickly and easily find out what is happening at any time. Attached to this bulletin is the current list.

If your branch or department is not identified, please contact another CAT member who is known to you. Alternatively, feel free to reach out to one of us. If you would like to fill that role at your branch or department please contact one of us.

Simultaneous to the above activities, we are continuing with our preparation for bargaining. The proposals that are being developed flow from the survey feedback, our site visits, one-on-one talks, and conversations workers have had with CAT members and their stewards. It is clear that the key priorities are fleshing out as wages, job security, benefits, and pension.  To make sure we are accurately reflecting your key priorities, we will be holding a membership meeting or meetings, prior to meeting with the Employer.

As we have not yet finished collecting the information that we believe we require to properly represent you, we made the difficult decision to cancel two bargaining days tentatively set for mid-April. We did offer to meet with the Employer on one or both of those dates to discuss protocol and other administrative matters, but your Employer declined to do so.  We also had to cancel June days because a member of your bargaining committee is unfortunately unavailable. As the members of the bargaining committee are your elected representative tasked with entering into a tentative settlement, it is important for everyone to be in attendance during talks with the Employer. Particularly, at the start of bargaining when proposals are exchanged, talked to, and the Employer’s and Union’s respective positions clarified.  Those first few days build the foundation upon which we will be negotiating a renewal collective agreement. We offered to meet for three weeks in July and August but have not yet heard from the Employer.

We imagine that some of you may be disappointed to learn will not be starting until July. We are too. But we want to enter this round of talks fully prepared, informed, and confident we are representing your key priorities. It takes time to do it right.

Finally, we are planning a Union Before Dark Social for early May as an opportunity for us to get together and catch-up. Please watch your inboxes for details.

If you know a BCGEU member who didn’t receive this bulletin, please forward it to them. If you are a BCGEU member who didn’t receive the bulletin directly, please update your email address with your Union by logging into the Member Portal here. If you know a BCGEU member who didn’t get this bulletin, please send them a copy. They should log on to the MY BCGEU member portal—my.bcgeu.ca—to give or update their email address. Go to https://my.bcgeu.ca/signup to create an account.
 
In solidarity,

Samantha Moskie, Bargaining Committee Chairperson
Susan Adams, Bargaining Committee Member
Andrew Becket, Bargaining Committee Member
Jason Lin, Bargaining Committee Member
Melissa Maan, Bargaining Committee Member
Norman Mah, Bargaining Committee Member
Zoe Towle, Staff Representative - Negotiations
 


Download PDF of notice here

Download list of CAT members here

UWU/MoveUP