Discussions continue over the attendance policy

We met with management on Tuesday of this week at the C.O. Again, the major topic we discussed was the attendance policy and the urgent situation many workers are facing with points.

The union is proposing a fairer attendance policy that would go into effect immediately (without waiting until the end of negotiations.) Management has agreed that changes are needed to the policy, and that if we can agree to those changes they should go into effect immediately. We have reached general agreement on some aspects of the new policy. Some of these points include:

• Additional paid sick/discretionary time
• The ability to use sick/discretionary time without receiving points
• A grace period for lateness
• Counting tardiness separately from absences for purposes of attendance discipline
• More flexibility for leaving early

However, there is one major sticking point: Co-op management still has not agreed to refrain from punishing employees who are absent due to circumstances outside of their control and have the documentation to prove it. We cannot agree to a policy that punishes workers for being sick, for caring for their children, for helping someone in a car accident on their way to work, for attending court dates or for other unplanned life events outside of our control.

Until management addresses this issue, we won’t have an agreement on the attendance policy. We expect a new proposal from management at our next session on Tuesday, January 14. We will keep you posted.

Agreement reached on OSK

In addition, we continued discussion on the impact of the temporary OSK closing. We have agreed to a basic framework that would allow employees to work in the retails or take a voluntary layoff. The union has surveyed OSK employees about their preferences, and management has committed to meeting individually with OSK workers as well. OSK workers with questions should contact their bargaining representative Mike “Mr. T” Tomaloff.