February 7, 2017 at 6:00 PM
The Unifor bargaining committee has been negotiating with Perimeter Aviation for the last number of months working through a list of non-monetary proposals. These proposals, though not monetary, are significant to the overall development in obtaining a first collective agreement for our members. This course has been quite lengthy as Perimeter’s process to working though these proposals is quite slow and drawn out. The representatives for Perimeter have not been given the mandate or authority to make the decisions necessary to address the issues at the bargaining table. As such, every time a proposal or counter proposal is tabled, the representatives are required to contact Exchange Income Corporation (EIC), the parent company of Perimeter Aviation. This is an unorthodox way of conducting business and certainly not the "norm" as it relates to collective bargaining.
The company has repeatedly advised the union they intend on keeping the first collective agreement “as lean as possible” and that they have no intention on putting anything in to the collective agreement over and above what legislation offers today. The irony is, Perimeter continues to refuse to put in to print rights that already apply to the members per the Canada Labour Code.
Our members, the flight attendant members at Perimeter Aviation, have made it clear that they want their first collective agreement to be one that is fair and reasonable and an agreement that provides more than what legislation offers them today. The committee has made some progress towards this goal, but in order to accelerate the process of negotiations, Unifor has filed a Notice of Dispute with the Canadian Industrial Relations Board (CIRB) for all of our members (including Flight Attendants) at Perimeter Aviation.
On February 6, 2017, the Unifor filed for conciliation with the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (FMCS). The FMCS will appoint a conciliator who then has 60 days to assist both parties to explore potential solutions in an attempt to bring about a negotiated settlement. This is then followed by a 21-day processing referred to as the "cooling off" period.
The conciliation process
Once a Notice of Dispute is filed, the Ministry of Labour has 15 days to appoint a conciliation officer. Once appointed, the officer meets with both parties over a 60 day period to facilitate negotiations. If the parties feel they are close to reaching a resolution they may agree to extend the conciliation period. If not, the parties enter a 21 day "cooling off period" and the officer reports back to the Minister of Labour. While in conciliation, the company may not lock-out employees and the union may not go on strike. Strike action is only ever taken as a last resort and after certain conditions (such as a strike vote and 72 hours' advance notice) are met.
Stay connected! During bargaining, all updates will be provided via Unifor 2002 bulletins. These bulletins will be available on the Unifor2002 website (unifor2002.org) and via e-news. To receive updated news concerning negotiations, please ensure that you have subscribed to Unifor 2002's e-news service.
For more information, please contact:
Ashley Watkins, Assistant to the Local President
/17-02-07 Unifor files for conciliation with Perimeter FA HTML en.txt