| Aug. 27, 1999
Strike
vote called for Sept. 13-16
Bargaining team needs leverage in talks
with AGCO
Your union bargaining team at the Alcohol and Gaming
Commission of Ontario has called a province-wide strike vote for Sept. 13 – 17.
"It’s all about leverage," said John Worton,
elected chair of the five-member team. "It is clear that the AGCO negotiators
don’t see any reason to bargain seriously. We need to give them one.
"We don’t want to go on strike, but if the threat
of a strike is the only way to get their takeaways off the table and start moving forward,
that’s what we have to do."
Two days of talks Aug. 10-11 did not result in a deal. For
some reason, the employer refused to meet face-to-face. They would only speak to the union
team through the neutral conciliator.
"Refusing to meet face-to-face is a deliberate
strategy to slow things down," said Mike Rowett, the OPSEU professional negotiator on
the team. "We need a strong strike vote so we can go back to the table in September
and get a contract before the snow flies."
The takeaways are still on the
table
Despite raking in $515 million in pure profit last year,
the AGCO still demands major take-aways that will cost each of us thousands in lost money,
vacation time, and – quite possibly – work.
Meanwhile, AGCO head Duncan Brown got a brand new company
sport utility vehicle and a 34.6 per cent raise last year, bringing him up to $170,000 a
year.
Here’s what the AGCO has in mind for you:
1. Short-term layoffs: total
insecurity
The AGCO won’t say why they want the option to lay you
off for up to 90 days at a time. They just say they want to.
Under their proposal, you would not get termination pay.
Seniority would mean nothing. They wouldn’t even have to say why they were laying you
off!
They might lay you off for 90 days, call you back to work,
and send you home with another short-term layoff. Or maybe your manager would just send
you home for a few weeks to balance the budget at the end of the year.
In some places, managers have used short-term layoffs to
intimidate employees they didn’t like.
Short-term layoffs mean total job insecurity. Could you
afford to work under those conditions?
2. Benefit rip-off
The benefits you and your family receive are part of your
pay. The AGCO wants you to cough up 15 per cent of the benefit premium. The cost?
The employer has estimated the cost to you as at least
$27.90 a month (more for family coverage). Our calculation based on both the Order in
Council and what the union is being billed for benefits for your negotiating team, is more
like $100 a month.
If this employer is concerned about the cost of benefits,
we are ready to talk. Using group buying power and eliminating agents’ commissions,
the OPSEU Joint Trusteed Benefit Fund can provide the same benefits for less – or
better benefits for the same cost. But there’s no reason any of us should be donating
$100 a month to this rich employer.
3. Layoff and
displacement: no recognition of seniority
The Employer wants to calculate seniority based on the date
of hire into the AGCO. For workers who transferred in from the Liquor Licensing Board of
Ontario (LLBO) or Gaming Control Commission (GCC), and have kept working since, seniority
would start on Feb. 23, 1998. Prior service at the LLBO or GCC would only count to break a
tie between two employees with the same seniority date.
But just when would years of service ever be used? Maybe in
deciding between two people who want to take their vacation at the same time, or something
like that. But on the big issues, the date you started work would not mean a thing.
The principle of seniority was designed to reduce
favouritism in the workplace. But the AGCO shows no interest in recognizing seniority if
layoffs occur. At the start of bargaining, they said that "seniority shall
apply" in cases of layoff and recall. Then they withdrew that language. This would
give the AGCO full power to decide who stays and who goes in the event of layoffs.
"All our job security language has to be built on
recognition of seniority," said OPSEU negotiator Mike Rowett. "If we don’t
have that, we’ve got nothing."
4. New hires lose in
"two-tier" vacations
In talks Aug. 10-11, the AGCO clarified its position on
vacations. As in the Order-in-Council that set up the AGCO, vacation entitlements for
workers who transferred in from the LLBO or GCC would stay the same. But people hired
since Feb. 23, 1998 would get far fewer vacation days:
| Current vacation |
Employer proposal |
| Up to 8 years: 15 days |
Up to one year: one week |
| 8 – 15 years: 20 days |
1 – 7 years: 2 weeks |
| 15 – 26 years: 25 days |
7 – 12 years: 3 weeks |
| 26+ years: 30 days |
12+ years: 4 weeks |
In other words, the employer wants to take away a
week or more of your time every single year until you leave AGCO.
Everyone deserves a decent vacation. OPSEU will not
support any kind of two-tier vacation system that discriminates against new hires.
5. Inspectors: Say good-bye to
"wait time"
Many AGCO employees spend a lot of their time travelling to
and from the facility where they actually work on a given day. This is not travel to work,
this is travel during work. Your OPSEU team insists that this work should
be compensated. The AGCO says, "No Way."
The employer originally demanded concessions on "wait
time" for inspectors. They have now withdrawn their original proposal and are saying
they want to abolish compensation for travel and wait time for inspectors.
6. Night protection for inspectors:
employer says "No"
The union has tabled language dealing with protection for
inspectors who are required to enter potentially dangerous premises between 8 p.m. and 5
a.m. The employer has categorically stated, "Absolutely not! We’re not having
two inspectors going into Swiss Chalets at night."
7. Job postings
The employer has agreed to langauge covering job
competitions but then wants to make the language meaningless. They insist on language that
gives them the ability to fill jobs at their discretion with whoever they want.
8. Wages
It only took a year, but on Aug. 10-11 the AGCO actually
put forward a wage position. The employer offered a 1.0 per cent raise in the first year,
1.35 per cent in the second, and 1.95 per cent in the third year of a three-year deal.
This is a total increase of 4.3 per cent over three years. It’s less than inflation.
It’s less than the cost of their takeaways. And it’s less than Duncan
Brown’s 34.6 per cent raise last year (company sport utility vehicle not included).
Remember that none of us have received a general wage
increase for seven years.
On the issue of moving up the pay grid, the employer says
there isn’t one. The AGCO will consider merit pay increases of up to three per cent
at the employer’s discretion. "We’ll give you money if we feel like
it" isn’t a guarantee. It isn’t even a promise. It isn’t anything. And
it doesn’t belong in a collective agreement.
9. Hours of work
Your union team says the normal work week should be what it
was before the AGCO was created: 37 ½ hours per week for Inspectors and 36 ¼ hours per
week for everyone else with no loss of pay on an hourly or weekly basis.
We want to maintain the current practice of five
compensating days off per year for auditors, in lieu of overtime.
10. No top-up for pregnancy leave
The employer has so far refused to consider topping up
Employment Insurance benefits (to 93 per cent of salary) for workers on pregnancy leave.
The employer’s position? "Pregnancy and parental leave shall be granted in
accordance with the terms set out in the Employmnent Standards Act."
Promising to obey the law is not bargaining.
Moving forward together
It is not true to say that no progress has been made in
bargaining. On issues like the grievance procedure and holidays, actual negotiations have
taken place.
Unfortunately, on issues like temporary assignments, work
arrangements (shift schedules, shift premiums, call back, standby, etc.), meal allowances,
headquarters, leaves of absence, kilometric rates, workers’ compensation, and the
rights of contract employees and students, the employer has had nothing to say. We have
presented detailed positions on all the issues; they have presented – silence.
Keep in touch!
Stay informed so you can support your team!
We are working with contacts in each AGCO office to keep
all members up-to-date on bargaining. If you have a secure fax number (i.e., at home, not
at work), fax your number to Lesley Williams at (416) 443-1762. Got e-mail at home? Send
your address to lwilliams@opseu.org (write "for
AGCO list" in the title bar). You can get the same information on the OPSEU web site
at www.opseu.org.
Please feel free to contact your elected team members:
Mary Cox 416-325-6333 (w)
Roger Moniz 416-326-8693 (w) 416-763-5964 (h)
Cheryl Morrow 416-326-0346 (w) 905-420-6759 (h)
Cindy Thompson 705-329-5156 (w) 705-687-7684 (h)
John Worton (chair) 416-326-8717 (w) 416-922-4683 (h)
Update:
union to file unfair labour practice charges
OPSEU will charge the AGCO with unfair labour practices for
two violations of the legal "freeze provision" that keeps working conditions the
same until the two sides bargain a new contract.
In the first case, at least one OPSEU member at AGCO has
been denied a benefit claim for chiropractic services. The insurance carrier says the
employer has changed the terms of the benefit plan. This is not permitted under the freeze
provision or the Order-in-Council that created the AGCO.
In the second case, OPSEU says that four new positions
being posted are not really new positions at all. In fact, they are Inspector and GRO
positions with extra travel in their job description. Since changes to working conditions
are negotiable, the AGCO should be talking to the union first. |
Authorized for distribution:
Leah Casselman, President
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