Dear 391 family members,
I hope everyone is finding time today to take a breath and reach out to someone who matters to you. These are challenging times and fear is high – not only for many members but also broadly in our communities and across the world. We will get through this together but I don’t want to minimize the fact that we have members among us who will struggle more than others. This impacts each individual differently depending on their own circumstances. Please be kind and find ways to keep in touch with us and other colleagues as we disperse across the city. As reported to the Board in last night’s meeting, somewhere between 500-600 of our membership have been given notice of layoff. This is huge; our membership is made of approximately 750 Vancouver workers.
By now, the majority of you will have received a call from a manager or HRC in regards to the wage protection period and temporary lay-off notice. We have received a number of questions and are working our way through them. We are also working on a plain language document to accompany the negotiated LOU.
Like any agreement between unions and employers, there are times when the interpretation of the language is different. That is when we talk with the employer, go back to notes regarding intention, and come to a resolve as to how to move forward. There are also situations and questions that will come up that we hadn’t anticipated or contemplated and we have to work through those on a case by case language. This is why in initial days the information may appear change or not be available. Please know that we are working through all of these as they come up. Continue to communicate with us at info@cupe391.ca so that your issues can be addressed.
The LOU is a dense document negotiated with three locals and multiple employer groups. It adds a layer of complexity in some areas that may mean a delay in getting back to you with an answer. This is because we want everyone to have the correct information from the outset – we know when we respond too quickly it can sometimes lead to even more confusion down the road.
The Executive is working on setting up some online info sessions. We will send information out as soon as they are scheduled.
Please stay tuned for another update later today.
To note:
Managers and HRCs are still working through the lists of contacts so you may not have received notification yet.
In solidarity,
Kari