![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.une-sen.org\/press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/pizza.png\" "\\"pizza\\"")
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Tons of Treasury Board and Parks Canada bargaining demands were received last Friday (which, incidentally, was the deadline for these things\u2026)! Not only does this mean that our membership is clearly looking to play an active part in the collective bargaining process, but it also means that quite a few meetings were held to discuss bargaining demands.<\/p>\n
For an inside look at what took place during those meetings, we reached out to a few local presidents to find out more.<\/p>\n
In beautiful British Columbia, Local President Lise Tataryn said the discussions went very well.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe talked about disability coverage, sick leave, extended health benefits,\u201d said Tataryn. \u201cIt\u2019s important to have those discussions.\u201d<\/p>\n
During the meeting, members of Local 20106\u00a0used the PSAC\u2019s program of demands for Parks Canada to guide their discussions.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe supported a few of the proposals in the program and put those forward,\u201d added Tataryn.<\/p>\n
Before letting us go, Tataryn mentioned that pizza and refreshments were used to lure members to the meeting. Yum! That said, she\u2019s interested in getting other ideas on how to get members to union meetings.<\/p>\n
Got an idea to share with Lise and the rest of us? Leave a comment below.<\/em><\/p>\n Over in Manitoba, Richard Landry of Local 50316 said his meeting required a bit more coordination because his members are spread out across 5 buildings \u2013 it\u2019s also a composite Local that represents, among others, members at Statistics Canada, in passport offices and at Library and Archives Canada.<\/p>\n \u201cWe tried to make it as convenient as possible for everyone to attend the meeting,\u201d said Landry.<\/p>\n On top of the classic pizza tactic used to draw members to the meeting, Landry said he also pinned posters to all the sites\u2019 union boards and dropped off pamphlets on all the desks.<\/p>\n And what do discussions on collective bargaining look like in a composite local?<\/p>\n \u201cDifferent sites have different priorities,\u201d explained the local president. \u201cFor our site, one of the points that we were quite interested in was compensatory time.\u201d Landry\u2019s workplace often requires bursts of overtime \u2013 in fact, we caught up with him during a double-shift. Ouch!<\/p>\n Over and above the bargaining demands, this particular meeting led to some great discussions about engaging members.<\/p>\n \u201cWe had a great discussion about promoting the image of our Local in these sites,\u201d explained Landry. \u201cIn the past, there had been a certain degree of negativity about the union.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe want to promote the union in a positive way. We want to build positive relationships with the members \u2013 instead of coming out of the blue with requests for their time whenever we have a meeting.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Tons of Treasury Board and Parks Canada bargaining demands were received last Friday (which, incidentally, was the deadline for these things\u2026)! Not only does this mean that our membership is clearly looking to play an active part in the collective bargaining process, but it also means that quite a few meetings were held to discuss … <\/p>\n