Airport screeners get PPE after complaint; OPSEU education workers ratify deal
Kal Tire workers ratify 1-year extension
FORT MCMURRAY, Alta. — Kal Tire employees ratified a one-year deal on April 28 for a contract extension with 90.6 per cent in favour of the deal. Terms and conditions of the contract remain the same.
“As the pandemic worsened and the global price of oil collapsed, we were faced with significant external challenges. Even the prospect of meeting for mediation had changed due to the pandemic,” says Matt Barnable, International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) district 14 business representative.
Airport screeners get PPE after complaint
LANGLEY, B.C. — Airport screeners at Abbotsford, Kamloops and Whitehorse airports in British Columbia continue to be on the job during COVID-19, and now they are now doing so with the appropriate personal protective equipment (PPE).
Transport Canada responded to a complaint on May 1 by ordering that all airport screeners across the entire country be provided with PPE, and further issued an order requiring all passengers to wear face masks as well, says the United Steelworkers (USW), Local 2009.
It’s a decision that also benefits USW District 3 workers, employed as airport screeners by Garda at Yellowknife and Thompson, Man. airports, as well as screeners in other districts, says USW.
“We are proud to represent workers who are now referred to as essential. But essential doesn’t mean they are sacrificial,” says Al Bieksa, president of USW, Local 2009.
OPSEU education workers ratify deal
TORONTO – The Ontario Council of Education Workers (OCEW), which includes the Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU), voted unanimously to ratify a new collective agreement on May 5.
“Education bargaining has been very difficult across the board, and the COVID-19 emergency hasn’t helped,” says Warren (Smokey) Thomas, OPSEU president. “But exhaustive negotiations have paid off, and our members can focus on doing what they do best: Creating welcoming learning environments that allow our students to grow and flourish in every aspect of their development.”
The OCEW is a bargaining council representing about 7,000 educational professionals working as teaching assistants, educational assistants, behavioural teaching assistants, designated early childhood educators, clerical staff, IT and many others at public and Catholic school boards. They are divided among seven unions, including OPSEU and its affiliate the Educational Resource Facilitators of Peel (ERFP), says the union.
The three-year agreement, retroactive to Sept. 1, 2019, includes wage increases of one per cent in each year, as well as significant improvements to benefits, says OPSEU.
Back pay approved for former AHS employees
EDMONTON — Former Alberta Union of Provincial Employees (AUPE) members working in Alberta Health Services General Support Services and who applied for retroactive pay will receive it on May 20.
An independent arbitrator ruled that former Alberta Health Services (AHS) general support services (GSS) employees who ended employment between April 1, 2019 and Jan. 30, 2020 would be eligible for retroactive pay, says the union.
This pay comes as a result of an arbitration decision made earlier this year which awarded AHS GSS workers a one-per-cent wage increase, says AUPE.
