Posted on by CUPW Vancouver

Vacation Leave Consultations Results

Vacation Leave Consultations Results

The last consultation on the 2009 – 2010 vacation leave schedules took place on February 11th. The vacation bid should begin within days. We have both good and bad news to report.

Good News:

  • Some areas already had good schedules. One of our goals was to improve all of the schedules, but especially those schedules that just didn’t have enough vacation weeks in general and summer weeks in particular. We were able to make significant improvements in the schedules for the following large sections: Manual #3 (full-time and part-time), Mech #2 (full-time), O/S #2 (full-time), and O/S Weekend P/T. In all of these areas, CUPW members should notice that they have more choice this year and are more likely to be able to get their first choices this year.
  • The schedules for the following large sections are virtually the same as last year (some with small improvements): RT&D (all shifts), O/S F/T #1 and 3, Manual F/T #1 and 2, Manual P02, Mech F/T #1 and 3, and Mech P/T #3 and Weekend.
  • The following small sections will have both one full basic and one full extra column for bidding: International (all shifts), International Surface, Registration #3, Customs Support P04 #2 and 3, Customs Support P05 #2, Consolidation (all shifts), VEM #2 and 3, RVU F/T P04 #2, and Short Paid and Repairs #2.
  • There are 4 new schedules of part-timers since last year’s consultations. The following schedules will have 2 full columns for bidding: O/S #2 and 3, and Mech #2. O/S #1, where nobody is entitled to extra weeks, will have one full column and one summer bulge for bidding.
  • Many of you have asked for an increase in weeks during the Olympics. Rather than add February weeks onto the vacation schedules, we have asked management to add February weeks in the vacation re-bid as soon as they are able to determine how many extra weeks they can afford. They have agreed to this and will be consulting with shift management on how many weeks will be offered for each schedule.

Bad News:

  • Although we tried very hard to convince management to include the Labour Day stat week as part of the summer bulge, they would not budge. We asked them to look at the mail volumes for the week of Labour Day last year. It turns out that that week had less mail volume than the August weeks and even less than the week of Canada Day. Still, management insists that preventing a few people in each section from being on vacation that week will make a significant impact on their ability to process mail.
  • We also tried very hard to convince management to provide a full Extra column for all of the small sections. Last year, the staff in the small sections on afternoon shift loudly insisted on a full Extra column on the floor and organized themselves: they all refused to bid unless they had full columns. As a result, all the small sections on afternoons have two full columns for bidding.

    We tried to convince management to extend this to all the shifts. How could management explain the differences in the Registration section? Although all the shifts have the same number of staff, only #3 shift has a full Extra column. This is clearly a case of the “squeaky wheel gets the grease”. If you think your schedule should have a full Extra column, it’s never too late to make noise about it.

Vacation Bidding

  • There is a temptation for senior staff to bid for 3 consecutive summer weeks during Basic bidding. If you know now you’re not going to use 3 summer weeks, please don’t bid for them. If you bid for summer weeks and then change your mind, please give them up during a re-bid as soon as possible so that others can bid for them.
  • Normally, employees in backfill (BF) assignments are not allowed to participate in the vacation bid. However, this year we have asked management to allow backfills to bid. If they are successful in bidding for the assignment they are currently backfilled in during the February bid, they will be able to keep their vacation bid. If they are not, they will not be allowed to carry their vacation bid to their new assignment.

In Solidarity,

Kathy Rczkowskyj
Shop Steward
#3 shift VMPP