Dear members of AMUSE,
The following are updates for this week:
- Bargaining goes to Conciliation!
- January Holiday Extension: Now it applies to Casual employees
- Happy Holidays!
- Contact us
1. Bargaining goes to Conciliation!
This week we met with McGill for the fourth time this month and received their counter-offers on several issues. After reviewing McGill’s position, the AMUSE bargaining team has decided to request that a conciliator be sent in from the Ministry of Labour to work with our two teams.
AMUSE voted to unionize in 2009 because, as McGill hires more and more casuals, members wanted to ensure they received fair wages and reasonable conditions. The McGill team’s offers on a number of key economic issues, such as salary scale, benefits compensation, and holiday pay, do not represent a significant improvement over the status quo. Our team feels that at this point, our visions are too far apart to proceed without a third party present.
Filing for conciliation means that a representative from the Ministry of Labour will be present at meetings to help our two teams work together and see eye to eye. Since we began meeting with McGill’s team in March, we’ve been able to reach agreements on many issues. Asking a conciliator to come in is our way ensuring things continue to go smoothly and quickly as we approach the end of bargaining.
As always, if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to email the bargaining team at [email protected].
Yours in solidarity,
Farid Attar
Dave Howden
Sheehan Moore
2. January Holiday Extension: Now it applies to Casual employees
You may have read in this newsletter or heard in your workplace about a four-day extension of the winter holidays for all McGill employees. Initially this did not include several hundred McGill employees, including all the members of AMUSE. However, HR was made aware of this rather disrespectful oversight by AMUSE and many individual workers and has since changed their policy.
Please be sure to consult points 3 and 4 of HR’s Reintegration FAQ to know what you are entitled to and ensure that you get it. This pay, if you are eligible, is in addition to the holiday indemnity to which all workers are entitled for December 25th and January 1st. If you have any questions of clarification or if you do not receive the pay to which you believe you are to be entitled under this policy, please email Dave, AMUSE’s Labour Relations Officer, at [email protected] or contact HR directly.
3. Happy Holidays!
On behalf of the AMUSE Executive and Board of Representatives, we’d like to wish all AMUSE members a restful and pleasant holiday. After an eventful semester, this break is well-earned. Perhaps when we all return to work and studies by January, we’ll have a collective agreement on which to vote. That’ll be some long-awaited present!
4. First Time Hearing from AMUSE? Contact us!
Is this the first time you’ve received a newsletter from AMUSE? We’re still working on our new website, but you can visit our temporary blog
Please contact us for further information. We are happy to answer any questions and to hear about any concerns that you may have!
Association of McGill University Support Employees - Public Service Alliance of Canada
3483 Peel Street, Montreal, Quebec, H3A 1W7
tel: 514-398-8896 , fax: 514-398-6892, cell: 514-589-6450
For general questions and comments: [email protected]
For questions about your rights or to file a grievance: [email protected]
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