Bulletin from Unifor ACL

BULLETIN # 2 2018

UNIFOR ACL (Atlantic Communication Locals) or The Council.

October 18, 2018

OPEB’S (other post employment benefits)

As everyone should be aware, as of April 1, 2019 Bell is taking away our OPEB’s. This amount is calculated as years of service for the Company after the age of 40, times $66.67 to a maximum amount of $1000 per year. This money is used to buy medical, dental and or life and accident insurance upon retirement.

DEFINED BENEFIT PENSION PLAN

We would like to bring to the members attention that if you retire between the age of 55 and 64 on the BellAliant Defined Benefit pension plan, you are entitled to a pension supplement of $50 per each year of pensionable service.

I.e.: age 55 with 30 years service = $1500 supplemental each year until age 65.

MANULIFE REPRESENTATION

Unifor ACL recently won an arbitration so that member’s have the right to have Union Representation (shop steward) at all/any meetings involving the Company.  This grievance had been filed specifically because Manulife was refusing to allow members to have union representation at any meetings that Manulife was involved in.

To further clarify, it is a member’s right to have Union Representation present in all matters relating to the terms and conditions of employment, unless expressly stated otherwise in the Collective Agreement.

4.06 BARGAINING UNIT SCOPE

Unifor ACL presently has several grievances pertaining to Bell’s movement of work to other Bell bargaining units outside of Atlantic Canada.

If any member is aware of any work leaving Atlantic Canada and going to any other Bell bargaining Unit, please contact your Shop Steward with this information.

It is very important that we identify this work as it will be part of any future arbitration settlement.

LRO (Limited Retirement Offer) UPDATE

The Company has responded to Unifor ACL on the LRO replacement numbers grievance at Step 3.  Not surprisingly, the Company has denied this grievance and we will be proceeding to arbitration.

SAFETY UPDATE

Unifor ACL has agreed to be part of the Bell (National) Occupational Health & Safety Policy Committee.  We have secured membership for 1 member from each Atlantic local on the Committee.

MENTAL HEALTH

The Council met with Bell for a discussion on Mental Health in Halifax on July 23, 2018.

The Company discussed their initiatives around mental health and programs that are available to the members on the Bell Net site at:

http://bellnet.int.bell.ca/human-resources/health-and-wellness

The Union expressed concerns with Bell about “coaching for Success” and the company’s use of performance monitoring involving statistics and stacked ranking (bottom 10%), which we continue to show are flawed/inaccurate and causing a great deal of stress on our members working both inside and out.

We as the Union will continue to speak on this issue with Bell until we believe it is fair and balanced and removes this stress on the workers.

UNIFOR NATIONAL SURVEY ON PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT

Across the Telecommunication Sector, in multiple companies, a variety of performance management tools are being used to set the goals and objectives of our members, people just like you.  Unifor, your national union, would like to know how these tools affect your ability to do your job and how you feel about them.
Beginning Monday, October 22, communications will be sent out asking you to take the time to fill out a survey.  We hope that each of our members will take the time to help us better understand the effects of these tools.  Stay tuned!

Again, most importantly – Contact your shop steward if you believe there are violations of the Collective Agreement in your workplace.

In Solidarity:

Bobby Macdonald, Steve Howlett, Sandy Brideau, Cullen Bolger, Faith Chaisson, Susan Rice, Cathy Morrell, Ron Benoit, National Rep Roch LeBlanc.