Unifor ACL Bulletin – November 12, 2021

BARGAINING

On October 13, 2021, Unifor Atlantic Locals (401,410,506,2289) posted on their websites, a message from your Bargaining Committee explaining why negotiations with Bell Canada are currently delayed. Please refer to your local’s website for details.

MOBILIZATION

As most may remember, during our last round of bargaining with Bell in 2017-2018, the Union had in place a Mobilization Committee that co-ordinated actions which were designed to show support for the Bargaining team up to and including ratification of the current Collective Agreement. Those actions included regular bargaining updates and “Red Shirt Days”, where members wore red Unifor T-shirts on designated days, again, in support of the bargaining team.

Currently, Unifor National is coordinating a campaign with the goal of protecting telecom jobs in Canada. The link for that information can be found below.

Our Telecoms, Our Jobs | Unifor

When bargaining does finally begin with a “Maintenance of activities” agreement in place, we will once again be looking to the membership for it’s full support.

To ensure that you receive all communications from the Union during negotiations be sure that you give a personal email address to your Local to be included on the list for bargaining updates. Each Locals telephone number is listed below.
LOCAL 401 – PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND 902 969 5939
LOCAL 410 – NEWFOUNDLAND AND LABRADOR 709 726 5550
LOCAL 506 – NEW BRUNSWICK 506 634 8810
LOCAL 2289 – NOVA SCOTIA 902 425 2440

We will not be communicating with the membership via Bell’s work email server during negotiations.

MANDATORY OVERTIME

Members are once again contacting the Union about being told they must work mandatory overtime. As a reminder, Article 23.02 restrict the company’s ability to ask our members to work more than 8 hours of Overtime in a scheduling period.

The Union has regularly been stating to Bell that departments are understaffed, and this has been the root cause of most of the complaints we receive daily.

Complaints including the call for mandatory overtime, the limited ability to access banked time, the low number of members off at one time for vacation, and the high number of staff temporary reassignments, to name but a few.

When bargaining does finally commence, the Unions position on addressing the issue of understaffing in Atlantic Canada is that we must grow the bargaining unit and eliminate the increasing use of contractors that are replacing members we lose through attrition.

MOST IMPORTANTLY

Contact your shop steward if you believe there are violations of the Collective Agreement in your workplace.

In Solidarity:
Jeff Nelson; Lee Pearce; Sandy Brideau; Faith Chaisson; Susan Rice
Jennifer Pauley; Stéphane Lamoureux; Cullen Bolger; Roch Leblanc