Voting Q and A’s
Why is the team asking us to turn down this offer?
The offer does not address your wage concerns.
The offer does not address your benefit concerns.
The offer does not address your job security concerns.
The offer does not address your parity concerns.
On Call/Callback takes away your right of refusal and your right to full compensation for call back. This provision means the College could run your life outside of work hours.
Why is the team asking us for a strike mandate?
To ensure we are ready to take job action in September, the time members have indicated would have maximum effect.
To increase the pressure on Management to get a deal completed by September 1st.
When is the vote?
The date of the vote is August 4, 2005.
Why does it take so long to arrange a vote?
A meeting with the College Relations Commission will need to take place to discuss vote dates and rules.
The colleges will need to produce voter’s lists in order for the vote to be conducted.
Under the rules set out by the College Relations Commission, notice of the vote needs to be posted in the workplace.
The locals will need to organize polling locations and appoint returning officers.
This will allow Bargaining Team representatives adequate time to attend meetings at your college.
What if I’m on leave or vacation on voting day?
The union will attempt to make arrangements for you to vote in advance.
Why did the Team not ask for a rejection and strike vote earlier?
The Team did consider bringing the Council’s proposals to you earlier. However, if we had, there would have been no wage offer in it.
We wanted to be reasonable and give management enough time (13 days) to present an offer that we could accept. We also wanted to be reasonable and give ourselves time after a vote (9 days) to negotiate a deal before any job action needed to be taken.
What happens if we reject the offer but do not authorize job action?
The offer you rejected would not get much better given management would know members weren’t prepared to back their demands.
You will no longer be in a position to take job action at the time when it would have the most effect.
You tie the team’s hands: they will no longer be able to effectively negotiate for you.
Sensing weakness, sub-standard offers will likely be brought forward by management in subsequent rounds of bargaining.
Teams would be hesitant to bring a strike vote back to you, based on the results of this vote.
If we do authorize job action, will we be taking job action?
Job action is the last resort, a vote to take job action increases the pressure put on management to give you a reasonable contract in a timely manner. The team is committed to getting an acceptable deal by September 1st. After the vote there will still be nine days of bargaining left to
get an acceptable deal, six of those days will be with the help of a mediator.
What happens after our contract expires September 1st?
A number of things could happen:
The team could continue negotiating.
The team could break off talks and give the required five days notice of job action.
The team could continue to negotiate and give Council notice of job action
Council could break off talks and give five days notice that they intend to lock us out.
Council could continue to negotiate and give the union notice of lock out.
When would the team call for job action?
The Team could call for job action no less than five days before we take any action, our agreement must also have expired.
Why would the team call for job action?
A job action is the last resort. The team would call for job action when they felt no more tangible progress could be made without further action against the colleges.
How long would a job action go on, if it was called for?
It’s in the interest of both parties to keep any labour disruption as short as possible. The team is sensitive to the economic pressures you will face – we will face the same pressures ourselves. Management will likely want to avoid job action at a time when the province is making new investments in
the college system. The bottom line is that as soon as the team feels it has a reasonable offer to bring forward, you will have the opportunity to decide whether or not it is enough to end the job action.
