At bargaining this past Wednesday we reached tentative agreements on three important issues:
1. Progressive Discipline: There will be 6 levels of progressive discipline. An employee must reach stage 6 before they can be fired. Employees who aren’t disciplined for just cause within 90 days of receiving discipline will return to their prior level. This means they can’t hold something over your head forever. Also, discipline due to attendance is entirely separate from this discipline schedule. Remember, all discipline must be for just cause, meaning management must do a thorough investigation before writing up a worker, they must apply all rules fairly and equally, any rules violated must be reasonable and known to all employees, and the punishment must fit the crime.
2. Hours of Work: Co-op management agreed to withdraw their proposal to require employees to work involuntary hours outside of their regular shift if they are unable to recruit enough volunteers to cover a scheduled shift. That allowed us to agree to the Hours of Work/Scheduling article. This article says that:
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Schedule changes can only occur with the consent of the affected employee
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Employees may submit their availability up to three times per year if they wish to make permanent changes to their schedule. These requests will be honored in order of seniority
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Employees showing up for work are guaranteed 4 hours work or 4 hours pay
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Employees are guaranteed 11 hours rest between shifts unless they chose to work on shorter rest
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Employees can be scheduled for no more than 5 days in a row unless they agree to such a schedule.
3. Union Activity: Union members, stewards and officers may take time during working hours to do union business, with proper advance notice. Co-op management agrees to recognize all union stewards and pay them at their normal rate of pay for time spent investigating and processing grievances. The union may participate in part of any new hire orientation of bargaining unit employees.
Management continues to insist that the union agree to a full no-strike clause for the duration fo the contract. This will be a major issue moving forward in bargaining. Non-economic issues still unresolved include:
- Management Rights
- No-Strike Clause/Protection of Right to Strike
- Union Recognition
- Union Dues Deduction
The Union negotiating committee was joined by members of the Communications Committee, who will begin giving regular updates and taking a number of other steps to communicate our message to union members, Co-op member-owners and the public at large. We will meet again for bargaining On December 11.