Just a quick update. I know that getting information out about what's going on is a vital concern for the membership. We met yesterday and today with the company. Currently the talks are pretty much an exchange of concerns over some of the things that are issues for the company and for us. Thus far the talks have been fairly constructive and, in my opinion, fairly positive.
If talks continue on in this manner then I would think that we will eventually have some kind of document or documents addressing some of these issues that would be brought to the membership for acceptance or rejection. I can assure you that we are not discussing main wage concessions. We may be able to reach some kind of agreement on changes and cooperation going forward, not unlike what Local 76 in Powell River has managed to do. In exchange we will see enhanced severance packages that will help ensure the employment of many of our currently laid off members. This is why we are talking and why we should talk.
We are currently scheduled to talk again on Thursday to continue the discussion. Though I personally have been rather pessimistic of late, these talks give me a glimmer of optimism and we all just need to be patient. There are no details to give out because it is still just at the talking point level.
i know rumours are just that but theres one in the mill that a staff member said that the buyouts were only going to age 60 and that they were basically there for trades -- hardly any operators, now in my opinion the operators in the mill have been hit the hardest and the trades have lost nowbody at all and that would just not be right !!!
ReplyDeleteThere has been no indication that buyouts are going only to trades. While we haven't determined the age we have looked at numbers down to 55. That would require going to the board and I think some of that is what these talks may be all about.
ReplyDeleteThere would be little reason to hold much in the way of discussion if we weren't looking at taking care of as many as possible (all we hope), both operations and maintenance.