13 September, 2022
For immediate release
Gander, NL – Sometimes negotiations take longer than expected. COVID and a change of representative (due to retirement) can add more time to the process. IAM Local Lodge 927 had their contract expire on 31 October, 2019, with only one 2% raise in 2019 to help members with their financial burdens – and a long time between contracts!
This week, Ed Hepburn was pleased to announce the conclusion of the bargaining with a 100% ratification approval of the new contract between LL927 and Irving Oil.
“I simply couldn’t have done it without the help, hard work and dedication of my Negots team Tara Woolfrey and Doug Harris,” said Hepburn. “My team put in countless hours on their own time and often meeting with me in pre-negots, just after working long over night shifts. I can Not say enough about Tara and Doug”. “The geography of the negotiations was another challenge. The management team was in Saint John. NB and the Negotiations Committee was in Gander, and Hepburn in Halifax. Rather than fly back and forth, we agreed to negotiate via video calls. We were able to save time and money, but also be more efficient with the resources we had available,” he said.
Adding to the challenge was the fact that the file belonged to a recently-retired GLR (Rick Arsenault), who did a great job in helping make the transition easier, but it was still not without initial challenges, said Hepburn. Rick, did a great job mentoring me in my early days and I can’t thank him enough.
“I contacted the members right away, got acquainted and started working with them regarding article issues and concerns to bring to negotiations,” Hepburn added. “We fought hard on the retroactive pay for 2020 and 2021. The company was initially not willing to give anything meaningful, so our team turned it down. Members will now receive about $2500 each, to be paid within 3 pay periods of signing” for the Retro years 2020 and 2021, equals 4% retro.
Other gains were:
- a cost-of-living raise of 6.4% that applies retroactively back to the beginning of August 2022, 3% more for 2022 on Nov 1st, 2022, and for each year of the contract, for a total of 16.4% over 3 years plus the retro and a $3000 signing bonus.
- significant increases to Vacation, Bereavement, extra Stat Day (Truth and Reconciliation Day), vacation carryover from one year to another
- some discipline language alterations, deletions and additions
- extra Overtime for on-call work (at home with cell phone)
- increase to meal credit (paid lunches), increase to uniform allotments and now dry cleaning covered for all
- recall for layoffs increased from 2 to 4 years
- increases to sick days and five extra days which can be banked
“We did it despite some obstacles. It goes to show that when members are involved, the company realises the dedication of their employee’s, the entire team gets the picture and gets it done!” concluded Hepburn
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For more information:
Ed Hepburn
ehepburn@iam140.ca
