If you read just one of our newsletters, this should be it for 2024.
We are headed into a crucial next few months for you and your Guild colleagues at The Canadian Press. Negotiations for a new collective agreement will begin at the start of next year, so we have a lot of activity you’ll need to know about leading up to then.
Put simply, we need you to stay informed and educated in the coming weeks.
Your colleagues on the communications and mobilization committees have volunteered their time to make sure everyone is informed. If you want to get involved, we still need you, so please get in touch.
In the meantime, the Canadian Media Guild has called elections for CP’s Location Unit Executives. This is an opportunity for interested employees to run as one of their local representatives, such as president or treasurer. You can find more details in the separate email “Call for nominations – CMG Location Unit elections 2024” from the Guild. If you don’t have a copy, feel free to contact me.
In solidarity,
President
David Friend
davidfriendunion@gmail.com
Vice-Président
Michel Saba
michel012@hotmail.com
Secretary-Treasurer
John Chidley-Hill
Directors
Bill Graveland – Calgary
403-233-7004
billgraveland@hotmail.com
Dean Bennett- Edmonton
– Halifax
Jean-Philippe Angers – Montreal
514-917-6433
jpangers@gmail.com
Jim Bronskill – Ottawa
John Chidley-Hill – Toronto
Camille Bains – Vancouver
Mary McComish – Pagemasters
Communications Team:
Sonja Puzic
Lyndsay Armstrong
Dylan Robertson
BEC
Bargaining Committee
Sticking to the collective agreement
With bargaining just around the corner, a reminder to all members that we must follow the collective agreement without exception. That includes sticking to the terms governing overtime, travel for assignments and shift turnaround times.
Some examples: There should be at least 12 hours between the end of a shift and the start of your next shift. And time spent travelling to and from an assignment counts as time worked.
Consistently following the collective agreement will help ensure that our bargaining team is on solid ground in the upcoming negotiations. If you don’t have a physical copy, you can find it here: https://cmg.ca/the-canadian-press-collective-agreement-2020-2024/
Managers doing union work
We need staff across the country to keep tabs on a troubling development. Several union jobs have been converted into non-unionized roles, even though those individuals perform union-related tasks. We filed a policy grievance due to the loss of many positions but hope we could resolve this issue directly with the employer.
We’ve demanded a return of those union tasks to employees who are part of the bargaining union. As the union sees it, a management position should be purely managerial and not a Guild position with a managerial component. This diminishes union positions and impedes advancement according to negotiated classifications.
If you see your manager doing union duties, please contact your union representatives with the crucial information – who, what they’re doing that is a union job (i.e. writing a news story), with evidence such as a screenshot with date and time. This information will be kept anonymous, but to make our case we want as much evidence as possible.
Upcoming (free) merch
The union’s executive team has been finalizing the design of a T-shirt that members can wear during the bargaining period as a symbolic representation of our rights.
By now you should’ve filled out a form sent by us outlining your shirt size. If you haven’t yet, please do so ASAP. Instructions on how to collect your shirt will be outlined in the coming weeks.
Keep your receipts
We strongly recommend that you keep all documents related to expenses in your personal email. As many of you have told us, there have been inconsistencies around reimbursements for travel and food with confusing messages sent from the company.
The employer cannot arbitrarily change their reimbursement method.
Several of our open grievances centre around past practices. For a payment practice to be recognized, it must be continuous and consistent, which means your claims and their payments establish this proof. Your union can collectively object and thereby recover unpaid amounts in the future, which means hang onto those receipts!
If you travel more than five days on an assignment, please remember to read your collective agreement and the Letter of Understanding 9. You may claim a daily per diem, but if it is not sufficient, you also have the option of submitting receipts. We recommend you keep your selection of restaurants to what would be normal in the circumstances.
The employer may not refuse your submission of receipts on these trips as there is clear language stipulating that you can do either or daily. You may for instance opt for the flat 70 dollars a day per diem rate on a particular day because your expenses came within this range but on another day during this trip, use the receipt submission because you exceeded $70 per day.
This is not to be confused with travel less than five days, which is covered by the business policy, which no longer has receipts as a method of submission, but rather just a flat rate of $70 per day as the employer changed their policy that sits outside the collective agreement last year. The policy being outside of the collective agreement does not give us a right to object or file a grievance. We maintain the employer shouldn’t have changed it during the collective agreement as it was past practice, but due to the collective agreement expiring shortly we will deal with this matter at the table. In the meantime, we encourage members to abide by the Letter of Understanding 9.
Important dates Nov. 21-26: CP location unit election