Letter to members of ORNGE

Letter to members of ORNGE

December 7, 2011 at 12:07 PM

Greetings Brothers and Sisters:

Recently the company has sent out a scheduling survey with the expectation that they want to change the schedule in the near future. The premise to the change according to the company is to mitigate "sick book offs" and to have a better impact on lifestyle. Unfortunately, we believe that there is no substance to their claim.

The company has not identified to us even one case of sick time abuse related to the current schedule. In addition, the company has failed to resolve what we understand from our membership to be the real identifiers, which have an impact not only on day-to-day functions at work but the crossover to your home life.

The issues that I am referring to are single medic staffing, level of care, staggered shift, shift overruns, duty outs, and scheduling appropriate meal breaks. The failure of the company to address these issues has had and will continue to have an impact on your work and home life, not the schedule.

The Union has expressed that we are willing to meet and discuss with the company regarding the schedule. Instead the company has chosen to bypass the bargaining committee that you have elected.

The company is in the process of selecting a working group of our membership to deal with the issue of shift schedules. Which we feel is interference of a trade union.

Your elected bargaining committee has and will always fight for what you the members want. We are ready to travel to all the bases in the New Year to discuss issues and concerns you have for the upcoming collective bargaining 2012 including the issue of shift schedules.

The Union will continue to represent you strongly and without bias. Please inform your Operations Manager that any schedule change should be a matter for collective bargaining, where it can be addressed appropriately with all matters surrounding it thoroughly discussed and negotiated.

  

In Solidarity,

Ron Smith
National Representative

  

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Cc Mr. Charles Telky, Chairperson
Ms. Jamie Ross, President, CAW Local 2002