Your Bargaining Team met with the Employer between February 7 and 9. The negotiation session was disappointing to say the least. After more than 25 days of negotiation over a 15 month period your Bargaining Team is frustrated with the employer's position and slow pace of negotiations.
Your Bargaining Team has been focused on improving pay (including the SR conversion), career development & training, earlier vacation accrual, more flexibility for people with families and scientific integrity.
In advance of this negotiating session we made it clear to CFIA that they needed to moderate their drastic changes to working conditions (refer to employer proposal on line). The employer made some minor changes but failed to table a monetary proposal to go along with it. Your Bargaining Team does not believe that the currently proposed changes to working conditions would ever be ratified by the membership and we could not in good faith recommend them to the membership.
We made it very clear to the employer on day three of this session that we will not meet with them again without first receiving their monetary offer. We are currently in the process of preparing the application for arbitration, and are open to the possibility of mediation. Our preference is to negotiate a fair collective agreement; however, at this time it depends on whether the Employer is serious about reaching a deal with our group, that includes a fair pay proposal including a market adjustment to address long standing pay issues within the Group.
As you may have heard several other bargaining units have reached tentative deals with Treasury Board. The general economic increase seems to be set at 1.25% per year for 4 years as 5 major tables have reached tentative deals at this rate. Members should know that while this economic increase appears to be the trend being set, many groups have been able to negotiate further economic restructuring and adjustments that increase pay well beyond 1.25% per year. Your bargaining team will assess these settlements and develop strategy to ensure that we get a good deal for our members.
We will keep you informed of further developments.
Your Bargaining Team