Safeway Gas Bars Bargaining Update

Dear Gas Bar Members:

We have recently finished another round of Union Negotiations with your Employer on August 25, 26, 27, 2015.

Since our last update we have had six (6) days of Union Negotiations. These last two (2) sets have been somewhat frustrating as we are having a hard time getting your Employer to agree to any of our proposals.

On Health and Safety, your Employer still refuses to deal with the issue of working alone in any way shape or form. They believe it is something that can be fixed through a Joint Labour Management Meeting. We are appalled at this position as we have been trying to fix it through Negotiations for the last three sets of Negotiations and we get nothing but continued promises that they will deal with it but to no avail. “We still have members forced to work alone for long periods of time.” Your Employer has asked us again to trust them to fix this problem as they have taken on a new process to deal with all Gas Bars in western Canada. Their reluctance to move on this issue is a major stumbling block to getting this process completed. Your committee has just requested from your Employer to have someone come to the Negotiation Table that actually has the power to make these commitments and live up to them if we are to try and move forward on the other issues.

On a lighter note we have made some progress on other proposals although not great, we have just entered into the monetary discussions. This is dealing with all wages, benefits and term of a new Union Contract.

We are in the process of setting additional meeting dates and hope to have a Collective Agreement concluded at our next set of meetings so we can bring something for you, the members, to vote on. We have approximately twenty-six (26) Union proposals outstanding but they are very serious ones for the most part, and hard to convince your Employer to make movement on.

Although we are still hopeful your Employer will move, on some of these outstanding issues. We want to caution you to be prepared to support your committee if we do end up coming to you with a request to turn down any offer, that does not resolve the more serious issues that you, the members, have requested that your Union try to resolve.

As we continue Negotiations we will keep you informed and may request your assistance to help bolster our position. Please watch for further updates and check our website often.

In closing we are trying to book further dates for Negotiations and we will advise once we get them. If you have questions or concerns please do not hesitate to contact your Union Representative.

Sincerely,

Your Negotiating Committee

Posted on: August 31,2015