District 140 Bulletin
NOTICE
TO ALL ACM MEMBERS
RE: UPDATE TO THE SHIFT PROCESS GOING ON IN ACM
The Union and the Company met on December 4, 2014 at the third level of the grievance process. This meeting was part of the process outlined in Article 10.01.03.01.03.
The discussion was a final attempt to see if we could find common ground on the shifting so we could bring something back to you to vote on.
I am sorry to report that we could not come to any agreement.
As you are aware we have taken the position that, minus any agreement from the membership and Company on a shifting pattern that the terms of the Canada Labour Code pertaining to hours of work must prevail.
The Company has openly stated they disagree with our position and that status quo remains until the process has been exhausted.
The Company has also indicated, that the alternate shift pattern that we polled for interest on during the vote, is not acceptable either and does not meet their criteria to form an agreement. This shift pattern was proposed to be introduced in one of the hangars on a type trial basis. This shift pattern as you know from the Shift Committee presentations, would provide you with two full long weekends per month. This same shift is worked at other airlines, and in fact it is worked in our Halifax GSE Department with full success for both the Union and the Company.
The Company itself put forward a shift pattern that rotated through weekends on a more expeditious time frame.
This shift pattern was not conducive to your family life, nor to your ability to travel home whether that is cross country or outside airport limits. As such we could not consciously bring this shift to you.
We have asked the Company to halt the upcoming vacation bid and they have refused that as well. It is our position that bidding vacation at this point in time does not make any sense.
The dispute will now advance to arbitration this month where will be asking the Arbitrator to rule on various issues.
We asked the Company to convene both sides of the Shift Committee to attempt to come to some type of shift pattern that can be agreed upon while we work to prepare for arbitration to which they agreed. We expect these meetings should start next week.
We thank you for your continued patience while we work through this process
In solidarity,
Gary Sinclair
General Chairperson
Central Region
(December 5, 2014)
