The vote on the the proposed LOU- Overtime Averaging CUPE and Emcon Shift Schedule will be held at the Dryden Patrol yard. All COVID Control measure must be adhered to and everybody will be required to wear a mask.

One must be a member in good standing to vote. In order to be a member in good standing you must have filled out the membership card and signed the bottom. You can do this ahead of time or just prior to voting. Membership cards will be available at the voting.

Union solidarity is based on the principle that union members are equal and deserve mutual respect at all levels. Any behavior that creates conflict prevents us from working together to strengthen our union.

As unionists, mutual respect, cooperation and understanding are our goals. We should neither condone nor tolerate behavior that undermines the dignity or self-esteem of any individual or creates an intimidating, hostile or offensive environment.

Discriminatory speech or conduct which is racist, sexist, transphobic or homophobic hurts and thereby divide us. So too, does discrimination on the basis of ability, age, class, religion, language and ethnic origin.

Sometimes discrimination takes the form of harassment. Harassment means using real or perceived power to abuse, devalue or humiliate. Harassment should not be treated as a joke. The uneasiness and resentment that it creates are not feelings that help us grow as a union.

Discrimination and harassment focus on characteristics that make us different; and they reduce our capacity to work together on shared concerns such as decent wages, safe working conditions, and justice in the workplace, society and in our union.

CUPE’s policies and practices must reflect our commitment to equality. Members, staff and elected officers must be mindful that all persons deserve dignity, equality and respect.

Through the extensive feedback and consultation with our members we have managed to revise the new schedule LOU. The biggest concern we heard was the 8 to 8 commitment. We’ve agreed on changing that to 6-6 with a core shift of 0700-1524 or 1900-0324. The idea is that we commit to being called in an hour early or stay up to 2.6 hours later if required but the core commitment is 6-6. The final revision of the Letter of Understanding (LOU) is below for your review.

LOU- Ovetime Averaging CUPE and Emcon Shift Schedule 2020 Rev.3

We will be voting on this November 16th at all the main yards.

We continue to move ahead with the strange times we are in and have set up a Zoom account to conduct future meetings. We are still in the testing phase but we hope to conduct meetings via zoom in the very near future. Zoom can be accessed from your desktop computer or laptop or telephone. You will need to install the free app on your smartphone for it to work on there but it should work through your browser on your desktop or laptop. As we are restricted from having more than 10 people in a room this is the only real option.

We will announce a meeting through this website and there will be a link to the meeting portal. I suggest everyone go and try to familiarize yourself with zoom (it’s free) so nobody misses out on anything. The more people involved the better. We do understand and appreciate that not everyone is able to connect from home so we suggest possibly inviting a co-worker into your home.

Please share this information with your co-workers and if anyone has questions please reach out to Rob @ 807 728-3924 or you can talk to him on November 16th when he is in the yard.

A reminder that there will be a vote November 16th on the new schedule proposed by the employer. It will start in Kenora at 8:00 November 16 and we will be working our way to Emo then to Dryden and finally finishing up in Ear Falls.

There is vote upcoming on November 16th. Your executive will be travelling to all the main yards to conduct a vote. The plan is to start in Kenora then to Emo and up to Dryden and finishing in Ear Falls. There will be another big announcement as well.

Here is the actual text of the Letter of Understanding we will be voting on.

LOU- Ovetime Averaging CUPE and Emcon Shift Schedule 2020 Rev.1

We are currently seeking nominations for all roles within the union. COVID has created many obstacles trying to get this local up and running. We tried several times to get something set up but this pandemic is creating hurdles with our geographic spread.

So if you know somebody who would be a good fit into one of the roles within the union executive pass it along to John, Peter or Rob and we can form a ballot at the upcoming election which should happen before Christmas.

If you would like to know more about what is involved in being on the Union Executive or committees, please reach out to your executive for more information.

As most are now aware, there is a new schedule being proposed for this winter. There was a preliminary vote in early September but there was an error in the presentation of how the schedule would work. The kinks have been worked out and there is going to be a second vote soon once all the winter staff have returned.

Welcome everyone to our new site. It is an ongoing process so bear with us as we continue to work on the site. We found with our geography and shift work it was proving difficult to stay in touch and keep all the members up to date with what’s been happening.

Come back often to check for updates.