October 31, 2013
We Are Determined to Defend our Jobs and our Rights
PSAC/UTE Bargaining Team meets in talks with Canada Revenue Agency.
Our Bargaining Team met with CRA October 23rd and 24th. While there was considerable discussion and evening negotiations, the discussions did not lead to an agreement as we remain far apart.
While there are a number of issues that are in dispute, an important one is duration of our agreement. CRA is pushing for a two-year agreement, which means that we would be back in negotiations for a new contract next year. The government has stated repeatedly that it intends to attack sick leave and potentially other rights of unionized public servants in negotiations next year. While CRA is proposing concessions such as ending severance accumulation for purposes of voluntary termination and restrictions on union communication in the workplace, it is too late in this round of negotiations for CRA to propose additional concessions such as changes to our sick leave. Our position is that we want a three-year collective agreement, so that our sick leave and the other hard-won rights in our contract remain protected under our collective agreement until the fall of 2015 – in all likelihood the year of the next federal election. We are also pushing
for protections for our jobs.
Our objective in this round of bargaining, above all else, is to protect our jobs and our rights.
We remain committed to negotiations. But to date CRA has rejected all of our proposals for improved scheduling rights, protections for our jobs and a contract that would take us through until October of 2015. We remain committed to achieving these protections.
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We will be sure to update as things progress. If you have any questions or concerns, speak with your union representative, and go to ute-sei.org or psacunion.ca to sign up for more updates. And be sure to participate in activities planned for October 31st, the one-year anniversary of the expiration of our contract.
PSAC/UTE members at Canada Revenue Agency
United for a Fair Contract
