Dear CUPE 104 members,
Last week, we met with the employer for another bargaining session. Unfortunately, the employer has taken the position that there is very little room for movement on the remaining items and there is no room for movement on their salary offer. To be clear, they have not moved at all from their initial salary offer.
During this session, the employer maintained their position and continued to try and justify the insulting salary offer that they tabled. Based on their presentation, they are not taking into account our critical staffing levels, high vacancy rates, the unique skills of our members, the responsibility we have for public and officer safety, nor the impacts of the work and working conditions on our mental health. Their analysis also showed that there are no issues with recruitment and retention.
Throughout this round of negotiations, we have fought against numerous concessions being sought by the employer. It appears the employer believes our group was first created in 2014 with no regard for the history of the terms and conditions that were established over the previous decades.
Our group was closely linked to the Regular Members of the RCMP in terms of salaries, benefits, and other terms and conditions for many years. We were not linked to the other groups in the Core Public Administration. However, through these negotiations, the employer has remained focused on the other 300 000 public servants and 28 other bargaining units while negotiating with us.
We are disappointed that the employer has taken this approach. Like many of you, we are disheartened that the employer thinks so little of the work we do and the impact that it has.
In an effort to help resolve the outstanding issues in a timely manner, we are proceeding to mediation. It is our hope that a third-party mediator can help us reach a tentative agreement with the employer. We are hoping to get dates for mediation soon and we will advise you of the dates as soon as we have them.
We ARE an incredible group, and we WILL remain unified and fight if we must and we will fight hard! We need to count on each other, support each other, and remain united now more than ever.
We are working on a date for a virtual Town Hall, sometime in the next couple of weeks, to discuss where we are at and the next steps… so stay tuned.