On July 21st, the CUPE 391 Bargaining Committee met with the Employer’s Bargaining Committee for the first time in this round of bargaining, at the Maritime Labour Centre.
Sandra Singh was in attendance, and, after a round of introductions, she gave a short talk on the role of VPL now and into the future.
At the meeting bargaining protocols were discussed. A bargaining protocol document was agreed upon and signed by our lead spokesperson and CUPE National Representative, Zoe Magnus, and the Employer’s lead spokesperson, Kim Thorne.
After this we exchanged proposals, with Zoe Magnus providing a spoken overview to each of the proposals in our bargaining package. Kim Thorne gave the Union a similar spoken overview of the Employer’s package.
It is likely that we will continue to meet at the Maritime Labour Centre. Our next scheduled meeting with the employer is in early November.
The Employer’s Bargaining Committee is comprised of Kim Thorne (lead spokesperson), Samantha Pillay, Diana Guinn, Eric Smith and Julie Iannacone.
The last communication from the CUPE 391 Bargaining Committee to the membership was in May. Since then the Committee has met twice. In mid June we reviewed our proposals and on July 18th we conducted a final preparation meeting. We also discussed the recently published Branch Staffing Model Review Report, as it will have consequences for bargaining.
In addition we continue to monitor the bargaining process for Vancouver’s inside workers, who are members of CUPE Local 15, and we are carefully watching what is happening for other library locals in the Greater Vancouver region.
The CUPE 391 Bargaining Committee will caucus again in August to carefully review the Employer’s proposals.
In solidarity, your Bargaining Committee, Brian Peaslee (chair), Aliza Nevarie, Jane Curry, Laurin Shadforth, Ed Dickson, Gary Jarvis and National Representative Zoe Magnus (lead spokesperson).