We met with The Canadian Press for two days this week. It was more of an information-gathering exercise than anything else.

The company provided some more detailed financial records, predominantly on payroll costs. Your bargaining team had questions about how the company calculates everything that’s included in your pay packet, including basic salaries, vacation, shift differentials, overtime and stat holiday premiums – all things that management has said it wants to discuss at the table.

Work also continued this week on proposed changes to when and how vacation time is paid. The Guild presented the company with a framework proposal that is currently being considered.

We’re expecting some meatier discussions next week on financial issues, particularly surrounding cost-cutting measures that the company says it needs to take to maintain operations. The Guild continues to send the message to management that to keep the company’s doors open, CP has to address its shortfalls on the revenue side of the ledger, rather than concentrating too much on reducing costs.

A sub-committee of the full bargaining teams will meet next week to launch discussions about your pension. At this stage we still don’t know what the company has in mind, but our message has been clear: Guild members have already taken a hit through the recent restructuring of the pension plan, and enough is enough.

Our next scheduled days of bargaining are December 12 –14 before taking a holiday break. We’ll communicate further with you as this process continues.

Your bargaining team:
Terry Pedwell, CP Branch President
John Cotter
Ross Marowits
Craig Wong
Keith Maskell, CMG Staff Representative