Local 92 – NSAC/Dalhousie University No Agreement Reached, Information Session Scheduled

Dear Local 92 member:

Contract negotiations continued with Dalhousie University on November 12th and 19th with the assistance of a conciliation officer. Your bargaining committee, President Joan Jessome, Chief Negotiator Keiren Tompkins and Employee Relations Officer Tina Webber met with members on November 25th to provide information and to advise members that a tentative agreement was not reached with your employer.

We have scheduled another information session before the Christmas holidays to answer any further questions you may have. We hope you can attend this meeting:

Date:       Thursday, December 11th, 2014

Time:       4:45 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.

Place:      Room 24, Cox Institute, Dal AC Campus

The union has applied for conciliation and will be conducting strike votes for each bargaining unit in early January prior to attending conciliation in the hopes of achieving a fair tentative agreement. Your bargaining committee believes this next step is necessary in order to reach a fair agreement that they can recommend to members. Members will be advised shortly of the strike vote dates.

The employer has already communicated with Local 92 members in an effort to persuade members that they are making a fair offer to your bargaining committee. The employer’s communication only focuses on a few improvements, leaves out important information, and ignores the fact that their classification review will result in many Local 92 members’ salaries being frozen, or “red-circled,” for a very long time, as well as the fact that they refuse to maintain your current displacement rights. The employer will continue to try to divide Local 92, and try to separate members from your bargaining committee’s recommendations. It is extremely important that we stick together as a group to support all members. This is the only way we can achieve our goals.

Your bargaining committee needs your support and a strong strike vote to send the message to your employer that you deserve a fair agreement; one that includes a fair wage increase, job security by ensuring continuation of displacement rights at the AC campus, and eliminating the negative impact of the employer’s proposed placement of Local 92 positions on the Local 77 and 99 salary scales. These are crucial in achieving a fair agreement.

We also encourage you to advise your managers, vice-presidents and deans how important these issues are in achieving a fair agreement.

It is important to note that the employer’s classification proposals will result in close to 30% of Local 92 members’ salaries being frozen for many years. In fact, some employees will never receive a salary increase while they remain in their same position.

If you do not already know the result of the employer’s proposed classification for your position, you can contact the NSGEU by calling 1-877-556-7438 or emailing inquiry@nsgeu.ca for the corresponding Local 77 or 99 classification for your position. Further information and discussion of the impact of your classification should be directed to your bargaining committee (please see contact information below). As a result of members requesting more information about their proposed classification results, the union is requesting further information from your employer.

This update includes information on what is still outstanding at the table, what has been agreed to date, and a Q&A about the conciliation/strike vote process.

For more information, please see the attached documents:

• Outstanding Provisions – a summary of what is still outstanding at the bargaining table;

• Conciliation and Strike Vote Q & A – important information about the conciliation process and the reasons why a strike vote is being conducted;

• Agreed Language for Local 99 – includes the language agreed upon to date for Local 92 members who will merge into the existing Local 99 bargaining unit should we reach an agreement. Local 92 members would be covered by the local 99 collective agreement plus any extra provisions or exceptions as agreed between the parties. A memorandum of agreement will be included in the Local 99 agreement;

• Agreed Language for Local 77 – includes the language agreed upon to date for Local 92 members who will merge into the existing Local 77 bargaining unit should we reach an agreement. Local 92 members would be covered by the local 77 collective agreement plus any extra provisions or exceptions as agreed between the parties. A memorandum of agreement will be included in the Local 77 agreement.

Local 92 Bargaining Committee:

Tom Cole – thomascole5@hotmail.com

Margie Hartling – mhartling@dal.ca

Rachel Kennedy – rrkennedy@dal.ca

Giselle Mazerolle – Giselle.mazerolle@dal.ca

Keiren Tompkins, Chief Negotiator, ktompkins@nsgeu.ca

Tina Webber, Employee Relations Officer twebber@nsgeu.ca