Dear Members,
A lot of things have happened, and a lot of work has been done since OPSSU gathered on March 5th and 6th to set our demands for the upcoming round of bargaining. As you are aware, our collective agreement expires on June 30th, and there is a lot of work ahead of us to get a new one.
The following provides some details on the work done, as well as some of the work to come!
BARGAINING TEAM
As most of you know, the Chair of the Bargaining Team, Mark Kotanen, has retired and resigned from the bargaining team. The team would like to wish Mark all the best for his retirement and thank him for his dedication to the members of OPSSU.
The bargaining team now consists of:
| Mirla Alvarado | Chair |
| Cameron Walker | Vice Chair |
| Adam Berisha | Services Staff |
| Cathy Guppy | Member at large |
| Kim Macpherson | Pro Tech |
| Cheryl Wing | Support Staff |
The members of the bargaining team can be reached through the dedicated email address: bargaining@opssu.ca
We encourage members who have question, comments, ideas, or concerns to contact us directly through our email address. Not all of us belong to Facebook, twitter, snapchat, or other forms of social media, so please use the above email address to contact us. This way the whole team will be in the loop and we can be more inclusive.
Please know that we are committed to responding to questions and concerns, and we want to hear from you. After all, it’s your collective agreement. We will try to respond as quickly as we can.
Your bargaining team will be putting out regular bulletins to keep the membership informed regarding our progress in negotiations.
Please remember to use your personal email address and not the employer’s email when communicating with the bargaining team.
NOTICE TO BARGAIN
Notice to bargain was sent to the employer on April 22, 2016 and we expect to have the employer’s availability in the not too distant future.
The bargaining team met on April 25-26. During these dates we did some training, put proposals together and collaborated with the Mobilizing Committee.
MOBILIZING
The mobilizing committee has met and developed an action plan which will be rolled out in the coming days, weeks and months. Stay tuned for more on that!!! In the meantime, please remember that the outcome of bargaining, in a large part, rests on the support of the OPSSU membership. The more engaged you are in OPSSU happenings inside and outside the workplace, the stronger we are at the table.
Have ideas, suggestions, actions in mind? The members of the mobilizing team want to hear from you, and can be reached through their dedicated email address: mobilizing@opssu.ca
STRIKE COORDINATORS & HEADQUARTERS
Strike Coordinators have been set for each Region and for Head Office. In the event of a strike or lock-out they will play a key role in organizing pickets, communicating on strike duty and other activities and actions. A place for Strike Headquarters is still being sought out.
WHAT HAPPENS NEXT
Once the employer and OPSSU have set some dates, an exchange of demands will happen. OPSSU will provide the employer your list of demands and the employer will provide their list. These lists will be reviewed by each side along with the disclosure of information provided by the employer.
After there has been an opportunity for each side to review the demands, along with the disclosed information, further meeting dates will be established to see if the parties can reach a fair tentative agreement.
We’ll report back once we have dates set and keep you informed as things progress.
In Solidarity,
Mirla Alvarado
On behalf of the OPSSU Bargaining Team
“United we bargain, divided we beg.“ – SEIU Local 250 button