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GN Bargaining Negotiations Update - 11/03/2012
Update - 6/28/2012 On Thursday, June 28th 2012 NEU and GN reached a four year tentative agreement. If the agreement is ratified by the members then following economic increases will be in force:
Retroactive settlements will be paid to all NEU members who are GN employees as of July 20th 2012.
While there are no changes to the Nunavut Northern Allowance, the tentative agreement does include a memorandum of agreement to establish a joint Union/Management study that would make recommendations in time for the next round of negotiations.
In addition GN has agreed to meet with NEU representatives to review and report on work that is currently being contracted out and is rightfully the work of the NEU bargaining units. This joint study would report within 90 days of their first meeting.
Additional information on the tentative agreement and the dates of the ratification votes will be posted in the near future.
Update - 5/3/2012 (a) to protect the health and safety of the public, and includes services provided by the most senior employee at each power plant who has responsibility for the on-site operation of the plant. The parties (GN and NEU) must agree to what positions are "essential services" and if they cannot agree then the positions that are in dispute must go before an arbitrator: Resolution of differences (3) Where the parties have been unable to reach agreement under subsection (2) The process can be long and cumbersome, especially if the Employer (in this case GN) begins to add additional positions that it wishes to have deemed essential at the "ninth hour" of negotiations. It is hoped that these "differences" can worked out in the next few weeks. Should that fail the matter will be referred to arbitration which means that the bargaining process will be delayed even further. Check the website regularly for updates on the negotiations on the essential service agreement with GN.
Update - 3/31/2012 This week the NEU President and the RVP for Kivalliq South met with NEU members in Churchill, Arviat and Baker Lake. That is right; we have NEU members in Churchill, Manitoba who work for the Department of H&SS. We also have H & SS members working in Winnipeg. As was the case with other community visits the presentations included: · An overview of what has occurred to date GN has agreed to an April 5th meeting date for further discussions/negotiations on the Essential Services Agreement (ESA). NEU is expecting to hear back from GN's on the Union's counter offers on essential service positions for H&SS and Justice / Corrections, as well as review Education ESA proposals. In addition we require further clarification for the ESA as to the use of casuals and contractors during a strike. Update - 3/24/2012 This week the NEU President met with NEU members in Rankin Inlet for a debriefing of what happened during mediation and what to expect with negotiations in the coming weeks. A meeting scheduled for Chesterfield Inlet had to be postponed as a result of inclement weather conditions. An Essential Services Agreement has yet to be negotiated; however, additional meeting dates are planned. Update - 3/17/2012 This week the NEU President met with NEU members in Kugluktuk, Cambridge Bay & Gjoa Haven for a debriefing of what happened during mediation and what to expect with negotiations in the coming weeks. An Essential Services Agreement has yet to be negotiated; however, additional meeting dates are planned. Update - 3/14/2012 NEU and GN broke off negotiations on the Essential Services Agreement (ESA) on March 10th 2012. Three GN departments are unresolved at this time and Health and Social Services and Justice are seeking additional designations to their original proposals. Additional dates for continued negotiations are being explored as early as this week or next. Should these negotiations fail there is a possibility that arbitration may be request in order to resolve the outstanding issues. The ESA situation must be resolved before we are in a legal strike position. Update - March 7th, 2012 Report from the Mediator on GN - NEU mediation Click here to review the report [english] Click here to review the report [inuktitut] Update - March 2nd, 2012 Post-Mediation This week the NEU President has met with NEU members on Tuesday, February 28th & Thursday, March 1st for a debriefing of what happened at Mediation and what to expect. In short, the presentation included: · An overview of what has occurred to date On March 1, 2012 the Mediator sent his report declaring an impasse at mediation. NEU President has requested permission to post the letter on NEU website. As well, NEU President has formally requested an actual verified costing of the NEU proposals that were presented by GN at mediation. Coming Events (weather permitting): NEU will be negotiating the Essential Services Agreement with GN from March 8 - 10 NEU President will be meeting with NEU members who work for GN in: · Cape Dorset for Tuesday, March 6th at the Community Hall from 7 pm - 9 pm. Update - February 22nd, 2012 Mediation ended last night when mediator Vince Ready declared an impasse. NEU President Douglas Manson Workman says that the parties are not very close on a number of key issues and that the Union will be assessing their options in a conference call later today. While there are cost issues between the parties, there are some principled issues which are not resolved as well... "the Government encourages employees to volunteer and participate in community activities but the Employer refuses to authorize additional leaves to let this happen. The Government encourages employees to participate and initiate IQ group activities and the Employer won't provide any more time for this to happen." On the major economic issues, we all recognize the high costs of living in the north. It's the major focus for these negotiations. "We are all aware of the cost increases which have taken place since 2008 and of the projected increases coming for power, airfares, and food transportation. Coming out of the last contract, the parties recognized that the Nunavut Northern Allowance needed to be reviewed and agreed to commission a study which would make recommendations to the parties who were to "consider implementing the recommendations". The study provided the parties with a number of options. The Employer has now refused to live up to any commitment and is proposing to freeze the allowance at 2010 levels four years." Contract settlements in Nunavut in particular and the North in general have averaged well above three percent going back to 2010 and through 2011 and into this year as well. Union data indicates that contract settlements averaged 3.88 % in 2010, 3.28 % in 2011, 3.11 for 2012 and 2.67% going into 2013. The Union has fairly proposed a three year settlement of 3.25% a year. The employer is offering 1%, 1% 2.0% and 2.75% over four years. Contracting Out The Government says it wants a fully staffed workplace but struggles to keep 70% of its jobs filled. The employer's reality is to backfill a large number of positions by hiring contractors from outside the north, because the rates of pay and the Northern allowance are not enough to attract and retain enough employees to do the work. This practice usually results in costs that substantially exceed what it would cost to hire a regular employee to do the work; this contractor money often leaves the north and as a result, doesn't stay here and support the northern economy, leaving the northern worker to survive on what's left in the coffers. The Union is ready to return to the table, at any time, to deal with a fair offer from the employer and we are encouraging them to review their position to avoid any disruption in public services. Update - February 2nd, 2012 Mediation between the NEU and the Government has been scheduled for February 19-21, 2012. The last round of negotiations between the NEU and the Government of Nunavut took place from August 8th to August 10th, 2011. Click here for updates (detailed history of negotiations to date) Click here for updates (unresolved demands that have been sent to mediation) Negotiating team members' names:
Update - August 22nd, 2011 From August 8-10, 2011 Government of Nunavut and Nunavut Employees Union met for their 5th Round of Negotiations for the GN- NEU Collective Agreement. Both negotiating teams agreed to new contract language for Group 2 (Correctional Workers) and a few minor administrative alterations. By the end of negotiations the Chief Negotiator for GN stated that there seems to be no movements on various issues as a result he will advise Minister Shewchuk to respond to NEU's April 8th, 2011 request for mediation. On August 16th NEU received that reply from the Minister. The Minister agreed to one of the Union's proposed candidates as mediator. The mediator will be Mr. Vince Ready. Both parties agreed that the GN will request for dates for mediation to as soon as possible. In the meantime, NEU and PSAC will be working together to start a Strike Mandate vote from the membership which if successful will give the Union a strong position when we meet with the GN negotiating team in mediation. As well, this week, NEU and GN will be meeting to continue to negotiate the Essential Services Agreement. Update - June 16th, 2011 Re: Update on Government of Nunavut (GN) Negotiations Dear NEU members of the GN bargaining unit, Since our last update, NEU has been involved on many different aspects with negotiating a collective agreement with the Government of Nunavut. After NEU's negotiating team walked away from the negotiating table on April 8th, we applied for mediation to the Minister Responsible for the Public Service Act (Minister Tootoo) along with an application to PSAC for a strike mandate vote which is the usual next steps in the process to achieving a collective agreement. On May 6th, we received the Minister's reply which was a request to forgo mediation and continue with negotiations. I accepted this invitation in the course of a CBC interview. Since then both negotiators have been trying to agree on dates for this next round of negotiations. We are anticipating mid-September dates at this point. Also, we have noted some changes that may have some effect on our negotiations. They include the change with the Minister Responsible for the Public Service Act (this happened twice since we started negotiating last September when Mr. Shewchuk was replaced by Mr. Tootoo who was replaced with Mr. Shewchuk); a change with the Deputy Minister of Finance (Mr. Ma to Mr. D'Arcy); & a change with the Nunavut Arctic College President (Mr. Vandermeulen). As well, I have been negotiating the Essential Services agreement that seems never-ending and very time consuming given the amount of re-organizing that GN has undertaken since 2001. For now NEU is doing more research into our financial proposals and developing counter-proposals for GN's not-so-agree-able proposals so that we can be ready for the next round of negotiations. In solidarity, Douglas M. Workman President Nunavut Employees Union Update - April 7th & 8th, 2011 NEU and GN entered the third day of negotiations. NEU presented their proposals. The GN negotiating committee has presented the Union with an offer which your negotiating team is rejecting. The employer has rejected almost every proposal the Union has presented and has offered some minor movement on a northern allowance and economic increases as follows: The GN came back with a Northern Allowance and Appendix B Proposal that included the following: Northern Allowance
Salary increase offer is the following: 0% increase pay line effective April 1st, 2011 1% increase pay line effective April 1st, 2012 1% increase pay line effective April 1st, 2013 1% increase pay line effective April 1st, 2014 GN Negotiation Committee has rejected our proposals on annual leave improvements that their managers gave themselves following the last round of negotiations. The GN has unilaterally substituted a new Health care Plan without consulting with the Union. They have rejected any improvements to the Medical or Dental plans. We have proposed renewing incentives to retain Health care worker which have also been rejected. During negotiations for the last collective agreement the Parties, in good faith we thought, agreed to back end load the collective agreement on rates of pay and put a process in place to FINALLY resolve the ongoing re-negotiation for the Northern Allowance (MoU #9). This time they want to use the last economic increase to compensate employees for the first six months of this agreement and they have rejected all of the specific recommendations made by their consultants to develop a Northern Allowance formula. We believe that we are worth more than the managers are offering and we will be applying for mediation to get the help we need to get this dispute resolved. On April 8th, our Union negotiating team walked away from the negotiating table to seek a strike mandate vote from the NEU membership of the Government of Nunavut bargaining unit and to file for mediation. Re: Update on Government of Nunavut (GN) Negotiations Update - April 5th, 2011 Today Government of Nunavut and NEU negotiating teams started their 4th round of negotiations. GN presented a package of proposals that included their initial monetary position which was 0% increase in pay for the next four years and no changes to the Nunavut Northern Allowance. The Union negotiating team spent the afternoon reviewing the Employer's package of proposals. The next meeting of both negotiating teams is scheduled for Wednesday, April 6 in the morning. Update - April 6th, 2011 April 6 saw both negotiating teams meeting so that the Union could share its share thoughts of the Employer's package from the previous day. Some of the topics were the proposal on leave entitlements transferring from day to hours; the NNA Report (on our website)which was created as a product of MOU#9; Relief Workers' entitlements; Casual Workers' entitlements; Term Employees' entitlements; Group 2 (Correctional Workers); Group 3 (College Educators); Group 5 (Healthcare Workers); MOU#8 and Great West Life Insurance programs (Article 37). As well, we shared that the financial numbers that the Employer had tabled on April 5th (the zero - zero stuff) were not conducive for ratification of a new collective agreement for members of NEU. February 2011 Re: Update on Government of Nunavut (GN) Negotiations Dear NEU members of the GN bargaining unit, The Nunavut Employees Union negotiating team has completed 3 rounds of negotiations. The first round was from September 20 - 24, 2010 where NEU presented their package of proposals that had been approved at our collective bargaining conference in December 2009 (this package is on our website). The Employer presented a non-monetary set of proposals. It was noted that any proposal that was monetary or perceived to have a cost was not responded to by the Employer other than to say it was monetary and it would be discussed later. The outcome from round 1 was: 1. Union's proposal with Article 38 was agreed; 2.some grammatical, and reference "typos" changes of the administrative order were agreed to in Articles 2, 15, 18, 22, 24, 26, 28, 35, 38, 40, 52, Group 3 and Group 5; Employer agreed to the Union's proposal regarding the implementation of MOU#11 in the current collective agreement which modified Group 6 School Year Employees. The second round of negotiations was from October 24 - 29, 2010. During this round there were more discussions with some counter-proposals and information / evidence being presented around certain topics and proposals like casual hire, operational requirements, cancellation of approved vacation leave, "IQ" days, Personal Leave Without Pay, separate cheques, Criminal Charges, Group 3 (Nunavut Arctic College Educators), & Group 5 (Health Care Workers). The outcome from round 2 was: new contract language agreed to regarding "operational requirements" (Article 17); new contract language agreed to regarding "Cancellation of Approved Vacation Leave" (Article 18); increase in the number of days for Duty Travel per diem eligibility and commercial accommodations (Article 41); & new contract language agreed to concerning working outside one's job description (Article 32). The third round of negotiations was from December 12 - 17, 2010. During this round NEU presented a more specific monetary package. As well further counter proposals and discussion took place around proposals like Group 2 (Employees at the Correctional Facilities), Group 3 ( College Educators), Criminal Charges, Group 5 (Health Care Workers) and the Union's proposal on maternity & parental leave modifications. The basic elements of the Union's monetary package of proposals were: 5 % increase per year effective October 1st, 2010 Fix the gap in the pay grid that exists between Pay Range 11 and Pay Range 12 Implementation of a new and improved Nunavut Northern Allowance that would honour by grandfathering (or grand parenting) existing levels if the allowance was to decrease upon implementation. This allowance is based upon the study that is referenced in MOU # 9 of the current collective agreement. That study is also available on our website entitled "NNA Review - Final Report". Vacation Travel Assistances (aka VTAs) The outcome from round 3 was: agreement on a new MOU regarding a Union - Management committee to discuss training & uniforms for Group 2 (Employees at Correctional Facilities); Employer agreed to the Union's proposal regarding the implementation of MOU#10 in the current collective agreement which modified Group 2 (Employees at Correctional Facilities) & agreement to changes in maternity + parental leave provisions. Our next round of negotiations is during the week of April 5th, 2011 where we are anticipating more discussions about the outstanding proposals with our non-monetary package and all of our monetary proposals. The challenge that NEU and the membership finds itself in this environment of uncertainty with so many different factors at play notwithstanding that the GN is working at a about a 30% vacancy rate. For now, in solidarity, Douglas M. Workman President Nunavut Employees Union → back to top |
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