National Bargaining Conference in Edmonton 2002

Brothers and Sisters,

I recently had the opportunity to attend a National Bargaining Conference in Edmonton.  (Feb. 22 and 23, 2002)  All of the agenda delt with changes to Format of the National Bargaining Program to adequately prepare for the next round of bargaining in 2003/2004. 

One issue that you should be aware of is a desire on the part of the conference is to strengthen the bargaining process by increasing strike pay for a local union that has gone on strike to achieve the national pattern.  The Advisory Committee  (formally the Steering Committee) has an action item to present to the member Unions of National Bargaining, a few options as to how this may best be achieved.  The plan is to present these options to the member unions at the September National Conference in Toronto.  From there the member unions will choose  one of the options and bring it back to the Local Union members for ratification.  I mention this specifically because it will probably mean dollars out of our pockets whatever option is chosen.  I hesitate to go into all of the reasons here in greater detail as it is a work in progress and does impact on strategies in dealing with the employers.  If you want more information  (and you should)  come to a union meeting between now and the summer break and I will be happy to go over the plan in greater detail.

Thanks for sending me to the conference.

In Solidarity

Dan Hennaert