Late last Friday, AAC management presented its financial offer to your CMG bargaining committee. To be blunt, the offer was insultingly low. You and your colleagues have worked too hard to see yourselves continue to lose ground against inflation.
AAC management wasn’t even prepared or able to give any rationale for lowballing its offer to employees. It’s hard to judge the validity of the other side’s argument if they don’t present one.
Bonuses continue to be a bone of contention. After two years of defending its practice of paying out bonuses to employees as part of their overall compensation, the company is suddenly saying that it doesn’t want to pay bonuses at all any more. Our committee has always said that we would prefer to see increases to our members’ base salaries, but we have never stood in the way of the company paying more money to its employees, in whatever form.
The next step is to seek a strike mandate from you, the members. Please remember that taking a strike vote does not necessarily mean that a strike is imminent or likely. The main purpose of a strike vote is to show the employer that it should take employees’ concerns seriously, and that the members are prepared to take any action up to and including going on strike, to achieve their goals. In fact, a strong strike mandate is one of the best tools you can give your committee in order to avoid a work stoppage.
We know that you will have questions and will want to understand the process better. To that end, we are holding two information sessions, at 1:30 and 5:30 pm on Wednesday December 19, at the Marriott hotel across the street. Bring your questions and your concerns.
Your bargaining committee:
Masaaba Mwambu
Tom Rudman
Michelle Smith
Keith Maskell, CMG Staff Representative