We are ready to fight for our right to have a good and fair contract A Strike or a Settlement: What does PTI Management Want? On March 17 & 18, your union negotiation team and PTI – Buffalo Metis Management conducted union negotiations through a government appointed mediator. The behavior of PTI was disappointing, and the mediator ended his formal involvement at the union’s request. The company’s efforts to attempt to reach an agreement, in our view, were simply not meaningful at all. Buffalo Metis employees don’t just want a new union contract, they want a GOOD one. As you know, PTI is a company that is “separating” from its parent company. PTI itself admits that the creation of its new stand alone accommodations business has been made possible because of the wealth its existing accommodations enterprise has created. We believe that hardworking union members created that wealth. YOU CREATED THAT WEALTH! The stage has now been set for a possible strike vote. Alberta law says that a “cooling off period” must occur after the departure of the mediator and before a strike vote can be taken. That circumstance is coming soon. Most of you are very anxious to send the company a strong message that you support your union and that you need significant workplace improvements. You have told us that you are ready to vote YES for a strike to maximize your bargaining leverage. On the other hand, it is clearly no ones desire to do this just for fun. The goal is TO GET AN IMPROVED AND A GOOD UNION CONTRACT. During this interim “cooling off” time, we have asked company negotiators to confirm a return to the bargaining table. We have also asked them to bring higher level management along – an individual or individuals that have real, immediate, and significant decision making power. Meetings are scheduled next week. But we are left to wonder…will the company take all of our demands seriously? At mediation, we got the message from the company that they wanted to shift focus to some issues, while ignoring others. The company needs to look at ALL workplace issues! You have told us that a number of important changes need to be made to your terms and conditions of employment. If your union didn’t want to make a deal, we would cancel next week’s sessions. The opposite is true. Leadership is not about stubbornness for its own sake. We want to meet with PTI bosses and make a deal. But it’s got to be a FAIR DEAL. It’s got to be a GOOD DEAL. How will PTI Management respond? We will find out next week. A strike vote still seems likely soon. But the ball is in PTI’s court! It is always good to be cautiously optimistic, but we have been disappointed by PTI bosses in the
Posted on: Mon, 31 Mar 2014 23:11:07 +0000
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