Commissioner Treusch,
This is not a letter I ever thought I would have to write but now am forced to, based on the actions of the CRA over the last year and the events of mediation last week. Your recent email to all employees of the CRA, which includes other bargaining units and excluded employees, in which you state what your final offer is, was an insult to the bargaining process.
The relationship with UTE has never been worse. We have worked very hard over the last 15 years to create an atmosphere of respect and co-operation. That has been completely shattered over the last year. The lack of respect shown during this round of negotiations has illustrated that this employer has no appreciation for the contributions of its employees. There have been some very nice words and thoughts put on paper by management, but nothing in the form of true negotiations at the table.
The steps taken by you last week to break normal protocol and put out your offer to the employees of CRA certainly has broken all trust and cooperation with the UTE. We will counter, we will put out our information and we will talk to our members.
As you have clearly indicated that you no longer wish to work co-operatively with the union, this letter is to inform you that the Union of Taxation Employees will no longer be participating or engaging in any consultation or joint committees with the CRA, save and except where our legal requirements under the Canada Labour Code re Health and Safety, require us to. We will be withdrawing from all national, regional and local joint committees and consultations.
We will, from this point forward, be dealing with all issues as per the legal and formal processes available to us, i.e. grievances in regards to policies, directives and any other items that the employer puts out.
We will now have a relationship based on the collective agreement that you are so determined to undermine and weaken. We have worked hard on our relationship, and it is very disheartening to see management disregard this relationship and put all of this hard work in jeopardy.
I know that if you even decide to reply to this letter, it will be like all the rest of management’s platitudes that do not have any true meaning. For example, in your email of Friday where you state of the number of days that you have come to the table as proof that you are open to negotiate. Perhaps you should also advise CRA employees of the actual amount of time your team sits at the table with ours. I was there last week and, in total, your team met with ours for less than a half an hour in two days, only to tell us they were unwilling to make any changes to their last offer.
As ever, we are always willing to go back to the table and negotiate.
Robert Campbell
National President, UTE