Avenue Living Members Receive a Contract Offer
UFCW 401 members working at Avenue Living will soon be voting on a recommended first contract offer from the company. The offer includes improvements and clarification for workers’ rights in a number of key areas:
- Employee rights
- No discrimination
- Union recognition and rights
- Security camera use
- Whistleblower protections
- A clean slate on all disciplines currently on file
- Grievance and arbitration processes to resolve disputes
- Health and safety improvements
- Hours of work and overtime language
- Employee tools and equipment
- Car allowance
- Rent subsidies
- Vacation entitlements
- Wage increases
“There’s a lot of really good contract language and monetary improvements for all the workers,” said UFCW Local 401 Executive Director Chris O’Halloran. “Members will also receive $2/hour in retroactive pay back to June 1, 202 – this is unheard of for a first contract.”
Members will also receive 4% and 3% wage increases in years’ 2 and 3 of the Collective Agreement.
We did not get everything we wanted during negotiations and the employer has announce some changes to the work being done by the membership. They have told us that they will be eliminating the Unit Turn position from their operation. Your negotiating committee has discussed this announcement, and we believe that the membership should make the decision about the next steps.
Option 1: you can accept the company offer and receive the retroactive pay of, $2/hour back to June 1, 2022, which will be around $4900.00 plus the $1000.00 signing bonus. By doing this you will be accepting a contract that does not have language to stop them from contracting out the unit turn work.
Option 2: you can reject the company offer, and we will file an Unfair Labour Practice Complaint against Avenue Living with the Alberta Labour Relations Board and fight these changes with every legal option we have.
“These workers are being placed in a very difficult position,” continued O’Halloran. “We are willing to fight the employer’s workforce reductions, but they have also tabled a fair amount of protections and money to facilitate their structural changes.”
Though your committee is recommending this officer, this is a membership decision, and we support you in your decision.
You can find the entire company offer HERE
Please call my cell directly at 587-999-6448 if you have questions. We will be holding a ratification meeting in Lloydminster on March 23rd to answer your questions. Please watch your email for meeting locations and times.
In solidarity,
Chris O’Halloran
Executive Director and Lead Negotiator
UFCW Local 401
Posted on: March 17,2023