Month: May 2016

Many of you have heard talk about a 4×10 shift (4 days on, 10 hour shift) and some have heard that other unions are considering proposals from the company. CRPEG has had several discussions with Management regarding the implementation of a 4×10 shift for members in Facilities Decommissioning only. As there are many issues around this request from the Company, CRPEG has indicated that further discussions must be held during contract negotiations in order to best serve the interests of members.

In the interim, CRPEG has indicated that if approached by their managers, members can work four 10 hour days, using provisions in the current agreement for banked time and overtime to record the additional hours.

If you have any questions on this, please contact Jonathan directly.

The Executive would like to remind it’s members that CNL is proceeding with a three-day Class IV electrical system maintenance outage 7 p.m. on Thursday, July 07, and Class IV power is to be restored to the site by approximately 7 p.m. on Sunday, July 10.

Since the CNL network (all servers, etc.) will be available during this three-day outage, for the Deep River offices this will mean business as usual.

Importantly though for many of our fellow members at the CRL site unless otherwise directed by your management the site will be shut down on what would be the normal business day of Friday, July 08.

The company expects that those staff not required to support the outage are to meet with their respective management to coordinate options for leave time or for other productive work. We are encouraging members to talk to their managers early to establish how this day will be covered

Extra efforts are being made by the company to provide additional meeting rooms and work stations at the Deep River facilities to enable off-site work activities. In some situations, it may be possible to work from home remotely. Members who elect to take the Friday off, are expected to use vacation time, banked time or other available leave options. All options should be discussed and agreed upon between managers and employees, in advance.

If you encounter difficulties agreeing to a plan for this day please let a steward know and we’ll do our best to help.

In our last bulletin we let you know that CRPEG has filed for bargaining and that our next communication we would give a summary of the results of the bargaining survey.

First of all, a thank you to all of the members who completed the survey. We had a really good turn out. The survey analysis has been studied and the results incorporated into our strategy and associated proposals. The key concerns as expressed by the members were:

Job Security
Flexible Work-time
Pensions
Scale, and Merit

The survey results as a whole form the core of the negotiating teams’ priorities. More information about the results can not be released for fear that it could jeopardize the overall negotiating strategy. We realise that this may be frustrating, given that we all look to facts and numbers in our daily lives but hope you can understand that it’s to protect the integrity of the process.

In addition we have been reviewing all of the written comments that were submitted with the survey. We appreciate the effort made to submit them, and will use them to help guide our strategy and decisions as we enter the negotiation process.

Bargaining

To recap, PIPSC on behalf of CRPEG filed notice that we wished to enter into Bargaining. The next step was for the company to formally respond and that has happened. The negotiating team is now in discussions with CNL to come up with meeting dates.

Before the negotiations begin, CRPEG and the company have agreed to attend a work shop on Interest-Based Bargaining offered by the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (MCS), a department in the Government of Canada. The MCS offers workshops to employers and employees in the federal jurisdiction on negotiations. This workshop is scheduled for May 18th-20th.

How is Interest-Based Bargaining different than what we have done in the past? The traditional method of negotiating at CNL is referred to as Position-Based Bargaining. In this method, employer and employee each develop a set of proposals that represent a new collective agreement (a position). Then the two go back and forth revising the positions until they reach some middle point. It is, by its nature confrontational. This alternative method of bargaining, Interest-Based Bargaining focuses on an issue or group of issues put forward, and the employee and employer groups work together to try to develop a solution to the issue that meets the needs of both parties. It is more cooperative in nature, and can generate more creative solutions for complex issues. Neither is right or wrong, they both have appropriate uses. It is our hope that participating in this may lead to a different path to the table and might promote a better outcome for everyone.

Some of you may have been off sick lately or absent for medical reasons. Even though the leave period was less than 5 days or a full shift you may have been presented with the attached form CW-510400-FM-013 for you and your health care professional to complete.

Upon discussion with the Employer, we were able to confirm that this form for leave less than 5 days due to sickness and/or medical appointments is NOT required.

If you have any concerns, or have been asked to complete this form, please contact Jonathan Fitzpatrick.

On Thursday, March 31, PIPSC, on behalf of CRPEG, filed notice to bargain with CNL.

This means that we have let the company know that we are ready to enter into the process of negotiations for a new contract. Under the Canada Labour Code, once notice to bargain has been served, all the current terms and conditions of employment (the contract) are frozen until a new agreement has been reached.

The company is expected to respond, indicating that they are also ready to negotiate, and usually offer several dates for the first meeting. At this point CNL and the CRPEG negotiating team will find a date for the first meeting.

At the first meeting the two teams will exchange initial proposals and work out the logistics of negotiations, the where, when, how often. Usually the first 3 or 4 bargaining session are scheduled at this point. The membership survey serves in large part to prioritize our proposals.

During subsequent meetings, each side typically revises their proposals, and/or comes to agreement on individual changes, and the process continues until a tentative agreement is reached.

At some point during bargaining, the parties will work out the details of the Maintenance Of Services Agreement (MSA). This agreement sets out the terms should there be some form of job action, either lockout or strike. The deadline for the MSA is that it must be filed with the CIRB prior to any job action.

Due to the continuously evolving nature of bargaining, the strategy and priorities may change over the course of discussions. Negotiations depend on a large number of variables, including strategy. In order to achieve the best possible contract for the members, the strategy will be kept confidential. The CRPEG Executive will provide regular updates on the status of negotiations.

The CRPEG 2016 Contract Negotiations Team is:

Kristine Drew,
Jonathan Fitzpatrick,
Noel Harrison,
Paul Jones,
Wade Mayo,
Raghu Rao,
Curtis Russell, and
Bill Visneski.

Assisting us from PIPSC is Negotiator Denise Doherty-Delorme.

What’s Next: In the next Bargaining Bulletin we will be presenting a summary of the results of the bargaining survey and the items identified for inclusion in the initial proposal to the Company.

If you have any questions, concerns, or suggestions, please direct them to negotiate@crpeg.ca and we will do our best to respond to them as quickly as possible.

CRPEG has raised concerns from its members to Human Resources and the Ethics and Disclosures office regarding the “Confirmation of Completion” survey for the Ethics and Business Conduct training module.

In particular, CRPEG questioned the requirement to certify having read and understand the requirements and intents of CNL’s Code of Conduct, as well as the affirmation to conduct duties in accordance with CNL’s Code of Conduct.  Conducting one’s duties in accordance with company policies and procedures is already a requirement of employment with CNL.

The Company has provided assurance to CRPEG that, after taking the training, employees may check off all the questions in the Survey without fear of reprisal from the Company.

If anyone has cause for further concern regarding this training and completion of the survey, please contact Jonathan Fitzpatrick or Wade Mayo.

The following myBenefits information sessions have been added for Deep River employees:

Tuesday, March 8th 11:30 am -1:00 pm
Monday, March 14th 11:30 am -1:00 pm

Location: Leadership Academy (Voyageur room) at Keys

As follow up to the Bulletin of March 2nd, attached are some additional files which may help with making appropriate decisions with respect to enrollment in the myBenefits health plan.

If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact a CRPEG steward.

(Files are official use and could not be attached.)

As a result of the membership vote announced Feb 1st, CRPEG chose to adopt the modular benefits program “myBenefits”.

It was recently communicated to us that this change will take effect with the next renewal of the modular benefits plan. The modular benefits program renews every 2 years, and the next renewal date is 2016 April 1st. The deadline to make changes to benefit plans is March 17th.

Please review the post on myCNL for details on the benefit plans, and on how to make changes to your benefits.

Several information sessions are being offered to new entrants, please consider attending one if you have any concerns or questions about the benefit plans and process.

We apologize for the slight delay in delivering this notice.

If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact a CRPEG steward

The Collective Agreement between CRPEG and Canadian Nuclear Laboratories expires on June 30, 2016. In order to assist your Bargaining Committee during the upcoming bargaining round, we would appreciate that you complete the following questionnaire. The results of this survey, together with information from previous questionnaires and other issues with the current collective agreement, will enable your Negotiations Committee to determine the issues to be addressed. Your cooperation is essential to help the Committee draft the Group’s bargaining proposals.

All individual responses will be treated anonymously and in strict confidence by the Executive/Negotiations Team and the PIPSC analysts.

If you have any additional comments or suggestions or if you wish to discuss any concerns you may have regarding collective bargaining in greater detail, please contact Jonathan Fitzpatrick at jfitzpat@pipsc.ca or the CRPEG negotiating team at negotiate@crpeg.ca

The deadline for completing the survey is Feb 29th, 2016.

NOTE: Access to Survey Monkey may be BLOCKED by CNL. If you have difficulty accessing the survey, please try accessing through your home computer or a public computer (e.g. your local public library). The survey is also accessible using your personal smart phone.

Please activate the survey promptly by clicking on the following link: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/9W6P3D2

Thank you for your assistance.