On January 18, 2018 your RE Bargaining Team reached a tentative agreement with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency to renew your Collective Agreement.
This round of bargaining was long and contested, and the employer asked us for many concessions on important quality of life issues such as your hours of work and scheduling. In the end we concluded this round with improvements to wages in the collective agreement, securing improvements that were achieved in the core public administration, rejecting the employer’s demands to change when and how you work, and ultimately corrected some historical issues that we have been facing for over 10 years. We would like to thank all the members of the VM Group who took time out of their schedules to attend events and information sessions for their support and activism in this round of bargaining.
This agreement must be ratified by all of us, the CFIA-VM membership. An electronic vote will be held in order to ratify this agreement. All members in good standing will receive by e-mail the voting instructions. The voting will be open during a two (2) week period beginning March 23, 2018. Please ensure your membership information is up to date.
A Yes vote means: You are accepting all of the changes proposed in the tentative agreement. Those changes will take place at the date of the signing (except as otherwise noted) and the employer will have a period of 120 days to implement them.
A No vote means: You reject the tentative agreement and instruct the CFIA-VM Bargaining Team to pursue further negotiation or take other actions in order to be in a legal strike position.
The Bargaining Team unanimously recommends the acceptance of this tentative agreement.
In Solidarity
Your Bargaining Team,
Dr. Ayman Soryal, CFIA-VM Group President
Dr. Valérie Coupal CFIA-VM Bargaining Team President
Dr. Doug Aitken
Dr. Witold Wince
Nicholas Pernal, PIPSC Negotiator