Hello Sisters, Brothers, Cousins, and Others!
l have heard a lot of murmurs about people having their long-term assignments (now on referred to as LTA) collapsed, about people being laid off, and some general confusion in the ranks. I wanted to make this bulletin to try to address some of these concerns. Many of our members, temp/term/causal & permanent alike, have been receiving an email stating that they have been removed from our LTA. The amusing part, is that the corporation cites Article 17.06 in their email, but we’ve had our C.A entirely suspended since Thursday November 14th in the Pacified region. Anyway…
The part that is not amusing, is that this is confusing many of our members; especially the newer hires. I want to assure everyone that this does not mean that your employment is terminated. Please do not confused this with the layoffs that you’ve probably heard are happening. If the corporation collapses your LTA, it simply means that you will revert to your substantive position which you own. ln the case of our temp/term/casual members, it will mean that you revert to a call system. As soon as we return to work, these schedules will require incumbent members again, and so they will very likely be posted for bid. The staff in PC&R are going to be flooded with hundreds of our bid sheets in the first weeks back…
For the people who were laid off, you will be eligible to apply for employment insurance immediately, so please do so. It’s also worth a mention that Canada Labour Code 94.3(a)(i) states that your employer is not allowed to lay you off for being a union member during a job action. Please get in touch with the office if this happens to you. Everyone should get their employment reactivated at the end of our job action, as per Article 53. Have a read!
ARTICLE 53 EMPLOYMENT SECURITY
53.01 There shall be no lay-off of any regular employee who was employed in the bargaining unit as of June 1, 2020 provided the employee agrees to be displaced to another position in accordance with the procedure set forth hereinafter. The same shall apply to any other employee who becomes a regular employee after June 1, 2020 and who has five (5) years or more of continuous employment.
Lastly, some of our temp/term/casual members who have their LTAs cancelled are being told by the corporation that they don’t belong to that particular work location anymore, and therefore shouldn’t report there to picket. This is just wrong. Our members are scheduled to picket by CUPW, and paid by CUPW. The corporation has NO right to try to confuse our members, and interfere with their pay. Please keep an eye out for this on your lines, because we’ve got to stop this misinformation. Notify your captains & coordinators, or get these members contact the office if you encounter any.
Stay warm, stay strong. We hope this won’t last long.
In Solidarity,
Joseph Henderson McCance 1st Vice President