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LL 2247 Keewatin Air Pilots File for Federal Conciliation

After a year of negotiations, the negotiating committee for the pilots at Keewatin Air has requested the services of the FMCS to assist with getting a deal that can be brought back to the membership for ratification.

While the parties have agreed to  a lot of items there are still many outstanding, including wages, classifications, training bonds, scheduling, |seniority, layoff/recall, reimbursement for physical exams & cockpit recorder usage to name a few.

DBR Relf is hoping to hear from the conciliator in the next while to set dates to get this dispute settled amicably between the parties.

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LL 2247 Duraco Ratifies New Agreement

The members of LL 2247 at Duraco Stormtite ratified a new three year agreement. This came after they had turned down the companies previous final offer on March 10,2015 and took a 100% in favor of strike action. The Negotiating committee met with the  owner and HR director and managed to come up with an offer that was acceptable to the committee.

The committee held another ratification meeting with the membership on March 25, 2015 at the District office and the committee recommended acceptance of this new offer,  it was ratified by the members 100% in favor of the new offer.

Highlights of the deal were:

Fifty cents per hour wage increase in each year of a 3 year deal ( avg 3.9% per year)

Sick leave improvements ( 2 extra days)

Wages and benefits retroactive to Jan 1 2015

 

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District Lodge 181 New DBR

At the March 2015 election meeting  DBR Relf announced his retirement effective July 31, 2015 at the end of his current term.

Glenn Tomchak of LL 1953 was acclaimed as the new DBR for the District.

DBR Relf thanked all the delegates for their support and patience over the 10 years he was able to be their servicing rep and wished them the best in the years to come. He stated that he was sure the locals would show Glenn the same support they had given him during his tenure as DBR and that he was going to do his best to help Glenn get up to speed on the Districts issues and challenges.

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The Right to Strike is Supreme in Canada!

 

For Immediate Release

 

Toronto, ON – The Supreme Court of Canada has affirmed that the right to strike is essential to meaningful collective bargaining.

“This is a great start to the new year,” said a satisfied IAM Canadian General Vice President Dave Ritchie. “We pride ourselves in that 99 per cent of our collective agreements are settled without a strike but all too often in recent years, governments turn to unfair essential services arrangements that tip the scales in management’s favour. This decision levels the playing field for Canadian workers.”

The precedent-setting decision determined that the Saskatchewan government’s Public Service Essential Services Act (PSESA) violates the freedom of association protected by the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. This decision overturned a 2013 decision by the Saskatchewan Court of Appeal which had previously ruled in favour of the provincial government.

“While strike activity itself does not guarantee that a labour dispute will be resolved in any particular manner, or that it will be resolved at all, it is the possibility of a strike which enables workers to negotiate their employment terms on a more equal footing,” Justice Rosalie Abella wrote for the majority in a 5-2 ruling.

“This is great news for our members at Air Canada whose collective agreement expires in the spring of 2016,” said Ritchie. As recently as 2012, the Harper government passed legislation taking away the right to strike from 8,600 IAM Air Canada employees after contract talks had reached an impasse and strike notification was issued. Then Federal Labour minister Lisa Raitt insisted a work stoppage would not be in the best interests of the fragile Canadian economy.

“This decision takes away management’s trump card and allows us to use ours if necessary,” explained Ritchie. “The decision spells it out in plain English, the right to strike is essential to meaningful collective bargaining and what governments have been doing in the past will no longer be tolerated.”

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For further information:

Dave Ritchie – IAM Canadian General Vice President

416-386-1789 Ext # 6323

Bill Trbovich – IAM Director of Communications

416-386-1789 Ext #6331/416-735-9765

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DL 181 At Full Speed in Negotiations

DBR Relf is currently in the process of negotiating contract amendments with LL 1953/MCI, LL 2247/Keewatin Air pilots & LL 2247/Duraco Stormtite. Bargaining will commence March 10, 2015 with MCI. Bargaining is in full stride with both LL 2247 groups Keewatin Air and Duraco Stormtite. Keewatin Air contract is a first contract and it has been a lengthy set of negotiations whereas Duraco Stormtite is an amendment to the existing contract that has already established hours wages and benefits.

He says he hopes to have both LL 2247 CBAs completed in the next little while but believes LL 1953/MCI will take quite awhile longer.

 

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Pension Innovation for Canadians: The Target Benefit Plan

The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers represents over 50,000 Canadian workers.  About half of our Canadian membership is employed in the federal jurisdiction, primarily working for airlines and air transport related companies.

Most of our membership participates in registered pension plans, both single employer and multi-employer.  We have sponsored target benefit multi-employer pension plans in Canada for over 40 years and we currently sponsor two jointly-trusteed multi-employer plans, one of which is exclusively for our members in the federal private sector.

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